Uncertainty over President Yoon's impeachment trial schedule

President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial continues on Tuesday with its ninth hearing, but there's still uncertainty over whether the hearings will stretch beyond this week.

We connect to our Oh Soo-young at the Constitutional Court for more.

Q1. Give us a run-down of what the hearing will look like. I understand the President might not attend today.

That's right Dami. Today's hearing will begin in the afternoon at 2PM. President Yoon's lawyers say it's undecided whether or not he will attend the ninth hearing.

Yoon missed the first two hearings but has attended the six most recent sessions.

According to Court officials, today's session is intended for each side the National Assembly's impeachment team and President Yoon's lawyers to summarise their cases for and against impeachment and go over evidence that the bench hasn't covered so far, as the last few trials focused on witness examinations.

To go over the main arguments made so far

The National Assembly panel has claimed: Yoon's declaration of martial law itself was illegal as he did not go through Cabinet procedures, as was his proclamation of Martial Law decrees. The panel says Yoon also tried to disrupt parliamentary activities by deploying troops to the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, and tried to arrest judicial figures.

Meanwhile, Yoon insists martial law was constitutional as an executive right.

He says the opposition party had made it impossible for the government to function by constantly impeaching officials, railroading controversial bills and cutting the budget.

He also cited suspicions of election fraud at the Election Commission and called on the Court to investigate the commission's servers and ballot papers for irregularities.

Q2. And it's still unclear whether the Court will accept President Yoon's appeal to postpone Thursday's hearing.

Yes. When asked about it on Monday, Court Press Officer Chun Jaehyun said no decision had been made.

So the bench will have to comment on it at the start or towards the end of today's hearing.

Yoon's lawyers are expected to strongly push for the postponement during today's session, as they also have to prepare for Yoon's criminal trial proceedings which begin on Thursday morning.

15 lawyers are working on the criminal case but 13 of them are also covering the impeachment trial, so they've been calling for the twice weekly trials to be reduced to one hearing a week, saying it's critical for Yoon's right to legal defense.

However, the National Assembly's impeachment team has called on the Court to not postpone the sessions.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission on Monday adopted a statement calling for a lawful trial process that ensures the right to defend oneself in Court.

Q3. This all affects the timeline of the verdict, which has taken around two weeks in the past.

Yes. Let's say the Court sticks to the current pace, they'll likely add one hearing next week to wrap up the arguments with a final statement from Yoon.

Then a verdict would be delivered in the first half of March.

But if the Court agrees to adjust the date of the tenth hearing, it would take place next Tuesday, and one or possibly two sessions after that could lengthen the trial by potentially weeks if they're scheduled seven days apart.

So it's a real high stakes decision whether or not to postpone the 10th hearing.

Let's wait and see. Thanks for your coverage.