Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo of South Korea was restored to Monday’s post, after the country’s constitutional court overturned its charges by the National Assembly. But the decision did not do little to announce any political stability in the country, which has gone from the crisis to the crisis.
Mr Han has briefly served as president of South Korea, after the assembly had president Yoon Suk Yeol on December 14, suspending Mr Yoon of office in relation to his failed attempt to place the country in accordance with military law. Mr Han had the role for less than two weeks, when the assembly also interrupted him, adding to the upheaval that flooding South Korea, a basic Asian ally of the United States.
The Constitutional Court has not yet announced when it will rule on whether to eliminate or reinstall Mr Yoon – a much more consequent decision that the Southern Koreans are waiting for weeks with increasing stress. If Mr Yoon is removed, South Korea will elect a new president within 60 days. If he returns to the office, he will face a country more broken than ever over his presidency.
The Constitutional Court has the final reason for whether the employees disputed by the Assembly are deducted or reinstalled. Her decision on Monday came into force immediately and cannot be infected.
Mr Han immediately returned to his duties, replacing Finance Minister Choi Sang-Mok, the official who next to the line of the government hierarchy, who doubled as president. But the country has not yet been elected leader, as it faces North Korea’s nuclear threats and world invoices that President Trump said he will impose in the coming weeks.
When the assembly interrupted Mr Han, he accused him of working on what he called Mr Yoon’s military law. He also said that Mr Han had violated his constitutional duties by refusing to appoint three judges of the Constitutional Court designated by the Convention. Mr Han denied the charges.
In the court ruling on Monday, only one of his eight judges supported Mr Han’s removal. Votes of at least six judges are required to remove officials. Otherwise, they are restored.
The court said he had not proven that Mr Han played a role in the imposition of Mr Yoon’s military law. Mr Han insisted that he did not know Mr Yoon’s plan until the night the president declared it. When Mr Han heard it for the first time, he said, he expressed his opposition to Mr Yoon, saying he would harm the country’s economy and its international reputation.
Mr Han was the first president to act in the history of South Korea.
Four judges said that Mr Han’s refusal to appoint the three judges of the Constitutional Court of Justice designated by the Convention was a violation of the Constitution and the relevant laws, but that the violation was not serious enough to deserve it. Only one justice said it was quite serious.
When Mr Yoon was challenged, the Supreme Court had only six judges, with three vacancies completed by the opposition -controlled assembly. The opposition condemned Mr Han’s refusal to sign the candidates of the Convention as an attempt to improve Mr Yoon to be remedied in office – as his removal would require six votes, no matter how many judges were in court.
Mr Choi, a successor to Mr Han as president, later appointed two of the three judges, leaving only one vacancy in court, which normally has nine members.
“I thank the Constitutional Court for his wise ruling,” Mr Han said after repeating his official duties after 88 days.
He called on South Korea to overcome his political polarization so that he could better cope with the “intensive hegemonic competition between the United States and China and a new geopolitical upheaval” after Mr Trump’s inauguration.
“If there is something we have seen and learned clearly since the last few years, it is that an extremely polarized society cannot fulfill its dreams, meet only misery,” he said.
Monday’s ruling did not provide any evidence of how the court would rule on Mr Yoon’s case. But it was the last twist into a political drama that has caught South Korea for months.
Mr Yoon’s presidency was characterized by the deepening of the conflict between his office and the National Assembly. Mr Yoon veto veto vetoes from his accounts, while the assembly voted to violate more government officials than any previous legislative.
Kwon Young-Se, the leader of Mr Yoon’s People Power Party, welcomed the court’s ruling as “a strict warning against the legislative violence carried out by the giant opposition”.
But Lee Jae-Myung, the main leader of the opposition, said that only when Mr Yoon is moving away from office, South Korea “will begin to end confusion and restore regularity”.
