South Korea's Constitutional Court to rule on impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo next week

According to Yonhap, the Constitutional Court of South Korea announced on March 20 that it will issue a ruling on the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo over martial law-related charges next week.

In a statement to the media, the Constitutional Court said the verdict would be announced at 10 a.m. on March 24 (local time). Three months earlier, Mr. Han Duck-soo was impeached by the South Korean National Assembly on a series of charges related to President Yoon Suk-yeol's failed attempt to impose martial law in December 2024.

If the impeachment motion is approved, Mr. Han will be removed from office as South Korea's Prime Minister. If the motion is rejected by the Constitutional Court, he will be reinstated.

The petition against Prime Minister Han outlined five grounds for impeachment, including his alleged involvement in imposing martial law, refusing to appoint more judges to the Constitutional Court, and refusing to enact two special prosecutor bills targeting President Yoon and First Lady Kim Keon-hee.

Prime Minister Han has denied the allegations, stating that he opposed the imposition of martial law and did not participate in the deployment of troops to the National Assembly while martial law was in effect.

Previously, in late December 2024, the South Korean National Assembly voted to impeach Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, just one day after the opposition filed a motion to impeach him.

At that time, in a statement after the vote in the National Assembly, South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik said: "I declare that the proposal to impeach Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has been passed. A total of 192 lawmakers participated in the vote, all of whom supported it."

This is the first time an acting South Korean president has been impeached. The move comes less than two weeks after Mr. Han took office to temporarily replace President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was impeached and suspended from office.

In a related move, the Constitutional Court has yet to officially announce a date for its ruling on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol over the martial law proposal. The Constitutional Court concluded its impeachment trial of President Yoon late last month and is expected to issue a ruling soon on whether to remove him from office.

However, the specific time of the court's ruling has not been announced. According to some sources, the Constitutional Court may issue a ruling on the impeachment as early as this week.