SEOUL: South Korea’s Constitutional Court dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday, reinstating him as acting president — a role he took after the president was suspended for declaring martial law.

The court ruling is the latest development in South Korea’s complex and sprawling political crisis, which President Yoon Suk Yeol started with a short-lived attempt to subvert civilian rule in December.

Lawmakers defied armed soldiers at parliament to vote down Yoon’s Dec 3 martial law declaration and impeached him soon after, with Han stepping in as acting president. But he was himself impeached by lawmakers just weeks later over his purported involvement in the martial law debacle, plus a dispute over judicial appointments.

“The Constitutional Court has rendered a decision to reject the impeachment trial request against Prime Minister Han Duck-soo,” the court said in a statement. The court ruled five-to-one against Han’s impeachment, with two judges arguing the case should not have made it to court as lawmakers did not have a super majority to impeach him in the first place.

Han’s actions while in office “cannot be seen as consti­tuting a betrayal of the people’s trust indirectly granted through the President” the court ruled.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2025