Acting President Han Duck-soo is the target of a motion of no confidence for refusing to appoint judges to the Constitutional Court.
The South Korean opposition announced Thursday that it had filed an impeachment motion against interim President Han Duck-soo, a new episode in the political crisis facing Asia's fourth-largest economy since the president's failed coup. now deposed Yoon Suk Yeol in early December. “We tabled the motion just before the plenary session”Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sung-joon told reporters at the National Assembly. “We will put it to the vote tomorrow”he added. The opposition criticizes Mr. Han for refusing to fill three vacant seats on the Constitutional Court, which must within six months validate or invalidate the dismissal of conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, voted by the deputies on December 14, for his failed attempt to impose martial law and muzzle Parliament by sending the army there eleven days earlier.
Han Duck-soo, Prime Minister, assumes the interim presidency, and Mr. Yoon is suspended pending the verdict of the Constitutional Court. This must rule by a two-thirds majority. However, three of its nine seats are vacant due to the retirement of their holders last fall. The three new judges were in principle to be appointed by the president on Thursday from among the candidates chosen by the National Assembly, controlled by the opposition. But Mr. Han, a 75-year-old career civil servant, maintains that his status as interim president does not give him the power to make major appointments, and demands that the choice of judges first be subject to a agreement between all the People's Power Party (PPP, in power) and the opposition groups.
The interim president must “refrain from exercising the most important exclusive presidential powers, including appointment to constitutional institutions”Mr. Han justified himself. “A consensus between the ruling party and the opposition in the National Assembly, which represents the people, must first be reached”he added.
Court hearing Friday
The Constitutional Court is scheduled to hold a first hearing on Mr. Yoon's impeachment on Friday. If the three vacant seats are not filled before the end of the procedure, the six remaining judges will have to rule unanimously to permanently oust Mr. Yoon from power. A single vote against impeachment would mean his automatic reinstatement in office. Mr. Han's refusal to appoint new judges proves “that he has neither the will nor the skills to respect the Constitution”lamented the leader of the Democratic Party deputies in the Assembly, Park Chan-dae.
If the motion tabled by the opposition is adopted, it will be the first impeachment of an interim president after that of the titular president in South Korea's history. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok would then become the new interim president. South Korea's Constitution provides that the National Assembly can remove the president by a two-thirds majority vote, and the prime minister and other government members by a simple majority. The opposition, which has 192 seats out of 300 in the Assembly, says it only needs a simple majority to depose Mr Han, since he is only prime minister. But the PPP instead argues that a two-thirds majority is necessary, since Mr. Han is acting president.
Yoon Suk Yeol, 64, is also under investigation for “rebellion”a crime punishable by death. The Corruption Investigation Bureau, which centralizes investigations, has already summoned the deposed president twice to question him about the events of the night of December 3 to 4, which stunned the country. But Mr. Yoon did not show up for any of these summonses. Investigators must decide in the coming days whether to issue a third summons, or whether to ask the courts for a warrant to bring Mr. Yoon to court by force.
