Justice minister reinstated
The Constitutional Court of Korea on Thursday dismissed the National Assembly's impeachment motion against Justice Minister Park Sung-jae, saying it found no evidence of him aiding former President Yoon Suk Yeol in his martial law imposition.
Park's impeachment was dismissed in an 8-0 decision by the eight-member bench of the Constitutional Court. The verdict came 119 days after the impeachment motion was submitted to the court by the National Assembly.
The court announced there was no evidence or objective material to back the Assembly's accusation that Park aided Yoon's martial law imposition.
It also stated that a gathering that took place at the presidential safe house after martial law was lifted cannot be judged as Park being involved in discussing legal measures and follow-up strategies related to the insurrection.
The National Assembly previously suspended the justice minister for not opposing Yoon's martial law declaration during a Cabinet meeting that was convened on the night of Dec. 3. He was accused of allegedly planning follow-up measures for the martial law decree with former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min at a presidential safe house the following day, including the establishment of detention facilities to hold lawmakers when martial law was declared.
In the first formal hearing of his impeachment trial on March 18, Park denied allegations linking him to the declaration of martial law, claiming he had actually urged the president not to proceed with the imposition. He said the gathering at the safe house was simply a meeting with acquaintances and insisted that martial law-related measures were never discussed.
The Assembly also argued that Park — who oversees the prosecution service — refused its request to submit detailed records on the prosecution's use of special activity funds, asserting that the minister's refusal constituted a violation of the Act on Testimony and Appraisal Before the National Assembly.
Another charge behind Park's impeachment was his abrupt departure from a parliamentary plenary session in December 2024, during which lawmakers were deliberating a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate multiple scandals involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
10 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Who is Lee Jae-myung's pick for prime minister, Kim Min-seok?
Rep. Kim Min-seok, who was considered President Lee Jae-myung's "wingman" when they were in the Democratic Party of Korea leadership, has been nominated as his prime minister. As prime minister, Kim would steer Lee's Cabinet and serve as a key adviser. The position requires the National Assembly's confirmation. From as early as August 2024, Kim began raising alarms about former President Yoon Suk Yeol preparing to impose martial law. Kim had argued with conviction that Yoon was not only thinking about martial law, but taking concrete steps to go through with it. Kim was met by skepticism even within the Democratic Party, where a sizeable majority felt that the party was "taking things too far" with the martial law claims. Democratic Party lawmakers were seen distancing themselves from Kim's claims. When Yoon declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Kim's early warnings were revisited. Face of 'new pro-Lee' group Rep. Kim Min-seok, a former star politician who made a stunning return to the spotlight under Lee's Democratic Party, has been at the center of the new pro-Lee Jae-myung group. When Kim ran for a seat on the Democratic Party's supreme council last August, it soon became apparent that he was Lee's preferred choice to serve in the party's top decision-making body, a coveted and prestigious spot. Youngest lawmaker of his time to be elected Kim, the youngest in the batch of lawmakers elected in the 1996 general election, stepped into the limelight as soon as he entered politics. As a young politician, Kim served as chief secretary to former President Kim Dae-jung, when he was the leader of the Democratic Party. Jailed for occupying US-owned building in Seoul Kim was one of some 70 university students to occupy the US Cultural Center near the US Embassy in Seoul in May 1985 in an unarmed protest. Recalling the protest, Kim said in an interview with a local broadcaster in Gwangju on Oct. 12, 2024, that he was one of the first to raise suspicions that the US might have been behind the "massacre in Gwangju." Kim was referring to the series of pro-democracy protests in May 1980 in Gwangju against the then-government under Chun Doo-hwan, a military dictator. In the interview, Kim said that when he was the president of the student council at Seoul National University, he called for "uncovering the truths about the possible US intervention in the Gwangju massacre." "I said something on that scale (in Gwangju) would not have been possible without acquiescence from the US. That's what the US Cultural Center incident is about," Kim said. "It marked the first instance of getting what happened in Gwangju a recognition outside Korea." Kim served two years and eight months in jail for violating the laws on public demonstrations at the time. arin@
Korea Herald
10 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Could Lee Jae-myung avoid trials during presidency?
With the ruling Democratic Party of Korea set to push for an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act to postpone any criminal trials involving sitting presidents until they leave office, President Lee Jae-myung will likely be unaffected during his term by the ongoing criminal trials he faces. A total of five different criminal trials presented major challenges for Lee during his presidential campaign, allowing other candidates to question whether Lee was truly qualified to lead the country. Some in the legal community expected that the trials would remain hurdles for Lee even after the election as Article 84 of the Constitution -- which stipulates that the president cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office except in cases of insurrection or treason -- does not clarify whether this immunity extends to ongoing trials that began before the president took office. But the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, led by the Democratic Party, approved a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act in early May to prevent legal ambiguity. The ruling party is reportedly considering proposing the amendment in a National Assembly plenary session on Thursday. 'The Constitution guarantees the president immunity from prosecution in order to ensure stable governance. The Criminal Procedure Act also states that criminal trials fall under the definition of prosecution,' said Democratic Party Rep. Jeon Hyun-heui during the ruling party's Supreme Council meeting on Monday, claiming that the entire case needs to be suspended regardless of when it began. The Democratic Party added that the amendment is a legislative clarification introduced to avoid any conflict between constitutional immunity and the actual judicial process. The main opposition People Power Party condemned the liberal party's legal revision, calling the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act a 'bulletproof law,' a self-interested measure aimed at granting immunity to the president. 'All are equal before the law. The presidency is not a position to escape trials that began before taking office,' said People Power Party interim leader Kim Yong-tae in a press conference held Sunday, asking whether President Lee is willing to attend a hearing in his trial for alleged election law violations scheduled on June 18. Kim criticized the proposed bills -- the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act and a proposed expansion of the Supreme Court -- which he said the ruling party is attempting to ram through only for the benefit of the current president. In early May, the Supreme Court's Court Administration Office stated that the judges of each court will have to decide whether to stop or proceed with the trials by applying Article 84 of the Constitution to a criminal defendant who has been elected president. Meanwhile, the Seoul High Court announced Monday that the hearing in Lee's retrial on charges of election law violations, which was set to be held on June 18, will be postponed. 'The court has rescheduled the hearing date and will set a new date later. The decision was made after considering Article 84 of the Constitution,' the Seoul High Court said, without giving a new date for the hearing. Decisions about Lee's remaining criminal trials, in which the president is accused of subornation of perjury, corruption, illegal money transfers to North Korea and misappropriating public funds, are yet to be announced.
Korea Herald
11 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Luxury for pets? Shallow pool at presidential residence raises questions
A liberal lawmaker's revelation of a shallow pool inside the presidential residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, has raised speculation that disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol may have built a swimming pool for the first couple's pets when he moved in. This aligns with ongoing suspicion by the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, which became the country's ruling party with President Lee Jae-myung's election win, about the excessive use of water inside the official residence. Rep. Kim Byoung-joo said in the party's supreme council meeting Monday that the speculation that the pool was used for pets, not humans, is gaining ground. "I've looked around the space inside the official residence of the president, and a pool grabbed my attention," said Kim, who was one of the ruling party lawmakers invited to visit the official residence on Saturday. "We should closely examine whether the Yoons installed facilities for personal use with taxpayers' money after moving into the official residence, where no one can monitor how the money is being spent," the two-term lawmaker Kim also said, adding that Yoon and his wife are suspected of having installed a cat tower worth 5 million won ($3,680). Before President Lee and his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, took over the space as their official residence, Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, were the first South Korean presidential couple to have chosen to use a building in the Seoul neighborhood of Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, formerly a residence for the foreign minister, as the presidential residence. The Yoon couple kept six dogs and five cats there until a week after Yoon was removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April amid the political crisis caused by his attempted self-coup. The pool -- estimated to be 5 meters long and 2 meters wide, with a shallow end about 50 centimeters deep -- recently grabbed media attention as four-term Democratic Party lawmaker Rep. Park Hong-keun revealed a photo of the shallow pool inside the residence. Citing water bills it had obtained, local newspaper Hankyoreh revealed in late May that water usage at the residence began to skyrocket from the summer of 2023, rising from 972 tons during the April-May period to 1,622 tons during the June-July period. Water consumption peaked at 2,051 tons during the August-September period in 2024. A representative of former president Yoon was quoted by Yonhap on Monday as saying that the speculation is not true and that the pool was built for use in landscaping a few months before United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Seoul in October 2023. According to Rep. Kim Young-hwan of the liberal party, the Yoon couple's use of water amounted to 228 tons in the week between Yoon's removal from office and his departure from the home.
