South Korean court reinstates impeached PM Han as Yoon awaits ruling

Han was suspended from duties in late December while serving as acting president for resisting pressure from the opposition to appoint new judges

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

By Soo-Hyang Choi and Shinhye Kang

 

A South Korean court has overturned Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s impeachment, reinstating him as the acting leader as the country waits for a separate verdict on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s political fate.

 

The Constitutional Court ruled in Han’s favor on Monday, with only one of the eight judges voting against restoring him to office. An impeachment requires at least six votes to pass. Han takes over the role of acting president from Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok.

 

“I will devote all my wisdom and capabilities to securing our national interest in the trade war that has already arrived as a reality,” Han said in a national address after the verdict. 

 

 

The decision marks the first time the court has ruled on a case related to Yoon’s short-lived martial law decree, which plunged South Korea into its worst constitutional crisis in recent history. The political uncertainty has deeply divided the nation, with tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets across the country ahead of the court’s decision on whether to uphold or reject Yoon’s impeachment.

 

Han was suspended by lawmakers in late December while serving as acting president for resisting opposition pressure to appoint new judges to the Constitutional Court — a move that would have boosted the chances of finalizing Yoon’s impeachment — and for allegedly aiding Yoon’s martial law declaration, charges Han has denied.

 

Half of the judges said Han’s refusal to appoint court justices was a violation of the law, but it wasn’t sufficient to justify his removal from office. 

 

Regarding his alleged involvement in Yoon’s martial law decree, the majority of judges concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that Han actively assisted the president in imposing martial law.

 

South Korea’s equity benchmark Kospi erased losses of as much as 0.5% shortly after the ruling, before turning lower again. It rose in each of the previous five sessions. The won was little changed at 1,465.85 per dollar.

 

“Any clarity we get on leadership — reinstatement of PM — is welcomed by the market so that the downside that market ascribed to the ongoing political crisis can be removed to some degree,” said Sat Duhra, a money manager at Janus Henderson Investors.

 

South Korea’s presidential office also welcomed the ruling. “The Constitutional Court’s decision today proves again that the parliament’s abuse of impeachments was a reckless and malicious political offensive,” it said in a statement.

 

The series of leadership changes highlight the instability overshadowing Asia’s fourth-largest economy, which has yet to arrange a call with President Donald Trump, who has already been back at the White House for two months and has imposed a range of tariffs. As a trade-dependent nation, South Korea is especially at risk. 

 

Monday’s ruling also marks the ninth impeachment case pushed by the opposition and dismissed by the court under the Yoon administration. “It will be detrimental to the Democratic Party,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Seoul’s Myongji University. “These rejections, one after another, only show that all they did all along was effectively hinder government operations through impeachments.” 

 

Opposition parties, led by the DP which holds a commanding majority in parliament, submitted yet another motion last week to impeach Choi for delaying the appointment of a court justice approved by the assembly. 

 

The decision on Yoon is now dragging on longer than previous impeachment cases in South Korea, which typically took about two weeks after hearings ended. Yoon’s case has already stretched for more than three weeks, leading to growing fatigue and concern over the country’s ability to handle challenges like slower economic growth and the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

 

Security was heightened around the court after signs of protests becoming more violent. Last week, an opposition lawmaker was hit by an egg while holding a press conference near the court urging for Yoon’s ouster.

 

Police set up barriers with buses to restrict access to the area, while dozens of Yoon supporters who have been camping outside the court continued their rallies calling for Yoon’s return.

 

Yoon has defended his Dec. 3 decision to deploy troops to parliament, saying he issued the martial law decree to prevent the opposition from further paralyzing his administration.