South Korea's parties spar over nominating judges who can decide impeached president Yoon's fate

To remove President Yoon Suk Yeol, who remains as the country's symbolic head without powers, the nine-member bench needs the support of at least six judges.

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the opposition Democratic Party began bickering over whether to fill three vacancies for judges at the country's Constitutional Court. The justices will decide whether to unseat the president or reinstate him in power.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea. (File)(via REUTERS)

In South Korea, three of the court's nine judges are directly appointed by the president and three others are nominated by the head of Supreme Court. The remaining three are nominated by the country's parliament, the National Assembly, followed by a procedural approval by the president.

To remove Yoon, who remains as the country's symbolic head without powers, the nine-member bench needs the support of at least six judges. Three vacancies mean that the judgement to remove Yoon from power needs to be unanimous in favour of his impeachment.

The Constitutional Court can decide Yoon's fate with current capacity of six judges, but the Democratic Party vowed to speed up the appointment process of remaining three judges. The party said a ruling from a full capacity bench will promote fairness and public confidence in its ruling.

Political observers told news agency AP that getting a unanimous verdict from the current six judge bench is challenging for the opposition hoping to formally remove Yoon from presidency. They note that, Cheong Hyungsik, a conservative judge appointed by Yoon, is less likely to rule against him. This leaves Yoon in an advantageous position to return as the president with full powers.

Out of three seats left to be nominated by the National Assembly, two judges can be nominated by the Democratic Party and the other by Yoon’s ruling PPP.

PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong, a Yoon loyalist, objected to the push by the Democratic Party to fill remaining three vacancies. He said that it would be “inappropriate” for an acting president, Han-Duck Soo, to approve nominations from the parliament, as such powers solely rests with the president.

“An acting president can appoint Constitutional Court justices when there is a presidential vacancy, but not when the president’s duties are just suspended,” AP reported Kweon as saying.

The Democratic Party quickly dismissed Kweon’s argument as “absurd and utterly nonsensical” and urged the PPP to adhere to a November agreement between the two parties to nominate the three Constitutional Court judges. The PPP has “blatantly revealed their true intention to obstruct the constitutional trial”, said spokesperson Jo Seoung-Lae.

The opposition also accused Yoon's PPP of attempts to delay the impeachment trial, as the Constitutional Court is allowed to take up to 180 days to decide the case.

The court's secretary general, Kim Jung-won, informed the parliament on Tuesday that the acting president can exercise the right to appoint justices.

Analysts suggest that the Democratic Party is hoping to win the presidential polls in case of Yoon's ouster by the court. Its leader Lee Jae-myung, who has appealed his conviction for violating election law in the Supreme Court, is expected to win the presidential polls.