On Thursday, December 26, the main South Korean opposition party, the Together Democratic Party, announced that they have introduced an impeachment bill against Prime Minister and Acting President Han Duck-soo, with a vote scheduled for Friday.
The Together Democratic Party had previously warned that if Acting President Han Duck-soo did not immediately appoint three Constitutional Court justices to fill the vacancies, he would face impeachment.
On Thursday, the parliament nominated three Constitutional Court justices, but Han Duck-soo has not formally appointed them yet.
Leader of the Democratic Party, Park Chan-dae, stated in a release that “Clearly, Prime Minister and Acting President Han Duck-soo does not have the qualifications or willingness to uphold the constitution.”
The impeachment motion against Han Duck-soo has been submitted to the parliament and will be voted on within 24 to 72 hours.
The motion cites a series of actions by Han Duck-soo as grounds for impeachment, including his veto of the “Kim Geon-hee Independent Counsel Act” which would investigate the First Lady independently.
While the Democratic Party holds a majority in the current parliament, there is still debate among parties and constitutional scholars on whether a simple majority or a two-thirds majority is needed for the impeachment of an acting president.
Earlier on Thursday, Han Duck-soo stated that he will not officially appoint the Constitutional Court justices until there is consensus among political parties, explaining that doing so without political consensus would harm the constitutional order.
In the bill passed by the parliament on Thursday for the appointment of Constitutional Court justices, two were nominated by the Democratic Party and one by the ruling party, National Power. The ruling party expressed opposition to nominating the justices in this manner.
Han Duck-soo has been under pressure regarding the appointment of the Constitutional Court justices. There is also disagreement among parties regarding the authority of an acting president to appoint justices.
According to the South Korean constitution, there are nine justices on the Constitutional Court, and at least six must agree for an impeachment case to pass. Currently, South Korea only has six justices, meaning all justices must agree for the impeachment to remove President Yoon Suk Yeol from office.
Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached by the parliament on December 14. On Wednesday, he did not respond to authorities regarding the investigation into the “martial law decree” incident. Investigators issued another summons on the 26th, requesting his appearance on the 29th.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court will hold its first hearing on Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment case on the 27th to determine whether to remove or reinstate him as president.
Earlier on the 26th, Kim Yong-hyun, former Minister of Defense, stated that Yoon Suk Yeol declaring martial law and then being investigated for “insurrection” was a warning against the opposition party’s misuse of democratic procedures.
Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on December 3 but under the pressure of parliamentary rejection and public protests, the martial law decree lasted only about six hours.
In a national speech on December 14 addressing the martial law incident, Yoon Suk Yeol stated that the true purpose of the opposition party’s insistence on impeaching him was to help party leader Lee Jae-myung escape potential guilt and advance the timing of elections.
He said, “For this, I will fight to the end to prevent those forces and criminal gangs that threaten the future of the Republic of Korea by causing paralysis of the national government and undermining the constitutional order.”
If Acting President Han Duck-soo is impeached, the role of acting president will be assumed by the Minister of Finance.