South Korea’s former acting president Choi faces imminent impeachment threat

SEOUL – A motion to impeach South Korea’s former acting president Choi Sang-mok was reported at the National Assembly on April 2, in the latest move by the main opposition party to hold top officials in the Yoon Suk Yeol administration accountable.

This would put the fate of Mr Choi, who is the finance minister and deputy prime minister, in the hands of the opposition-led National Assembly, which may propose to vote on an

impeachment motion against him no later than the afternoon of April 4

.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has accused Mr Choi of failing to fulfil his duty as acting president to appoint the ninth Constitutional Court justice, and causing a delay in the Yoon impeachment ruling.

Since the weekend, the party has renewed its bid to pass impeachment motions against the two acting presidents who succeeded Mr Yoon following his Dec 14 impeachment and suspension for

declaring martial law on the night of Dec 3

.

Parliament had previously passed an impeachment motion against Prime Minister and Acting President Han Duck-soo on Dec 27, and now seeks to impeach Mr Choi, who had filled in for Mr Han while the latter was suspended.

Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae said the acting presidents obstructed the impeachment trial process by failing to comply with the Constitutional Court’s ruling – that it is their duty to appoint court justices selected by the National Assembly – and “must be held accountable for the failure to fulfil their constitutional duty”.

The Democratic Party, however, is likely to wait until the Constitutional Court finalises its decision over Mr Yoon’s impeachment on April 4, the party’s Mr Hwang Jung-a told reporters.

This news comes as lawmakers of the five opposition parties, including the Democratic Party, jointly filed a motion to impeach Mr Choi on March 21, due to his failure to appoint the ninth Constitutional Justice, despite appointing one left-leaning justice and another right-leaning justice selected by the National Assembly.

The Democratic Party holds enough seats to pass on its own the impeachment motion against a public official.

Mr Choi assumed the role of acting president from Dec 31 to March 24. Prime Minister Han was reinstated on March 24, the same day the impeachment motion against him was voted down in a majority decision by the Constitutional Court.

Under the National Assembly Act, an impeachment motion must be reported at the first plenary session following its submission. A vote must then take place within 24 to 72 hours.

This means that if the vote occurs before the afternoon of April 4, Mr Choi could be suspended from his positions.

If it does not, the motion may either be sent to Parliament’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee for further review or be dismissed altogether.

The Democratic Party’s leadership has not elaborated what explicit potential legislative action it could take against Mr Han for failing to appoint the ninth justice, despite earlier warnings that the party would hold him accountable if he did not complete the appointment by April 1.

Mr Park of the Democratic Party insisted on April 2 that if either Mr Han or Mr Choi had appointed left-leaning judge Ma Eun-hyuk as the final Constitutional Court justice to fill the bench, it “would have concluded Yoon’s impeachment case a long time ago”.

In February, the Constitutional Court acknowledged that an acting president has a duty to name a ninth justice to the court, which would otherwise violate the legislature’s rights.

The parliament passed a resolution demanding Mr Han appoint Mr Ma on April 2. Regardless of Mr Han’s appointment of Mr Ma, the Yoon verdict will be handed down by the eight-member bench of the Constitutional Court on April 4. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK