Court dismisses four impeachment motions by National Assembly ahead of Pres. Yoon verdict

Thank you for joining us. I'm Yoon Jung-min.

The impeachments of key public officials in charge of the nation's auditing and investigations were rejected today by the Constitutional Court.

These rulings come ahead of the verdict on the president's own political fate.

Oh Soo-young has our top story.

The Constitutional Court dismissed the National Assembly's motions to impeach four state officials, ahead of President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment verdict.

The Court on Thursday announced its decision not to uphold the dismissal of chief state auditor Choe Jae-hae, on allegations he broke the neutrality of the Board of Audit and Inspection, by acting in the interests of the Yoon administration, and conducting a weak audit of the relocating of the Presidential Office in 2022.

That move by President Yoon was criticized by his political opponents, who make up an overwhelming majority at the National Assembly.

The judicial bench, however, cited a lack of evidence that Choe had acted illegally or unconstitutionally, and asserted the independence of the auditing authority.

The bench also ruled on the impeachment of three prosecutors, including Seoul Central District Chief Prosecutor Lee Chang-soo, and Prosecutors Cho Sang-won and Choi Jae-hun, who had been accused of conducting a lenient investigation into First Lady Kim Keon Hee's alleged involvement in a stock manipulation case.

The Justices said it was difficult to conclude the prosecutors had violated the law or constitutional principles.

The Court has been working on nine impeachment cases, eight of which were pushed through by the Assembly, after President Yoon's martial law on December third last year.

Yoon's legal team claim Thursday's rulings "confirm" the opposition abused its legislative power with a series of impeachments, and called for the the President's case to also be dismissed "immediately."

"As political and public pressure both for and against Yoon's impeachment become more fervent by the day, particularly after his release from detention, the judicial bench appears to be moving more cautiously to deliver a broadly acceptable decision to a highly polarized society.

More than 2-point-6 million petitions, both supporting and opposing Yoon's impeachment, have been submitted to the Court."

With Yoon's impeachment ruling unlikely to take place this week as initially expected, this is set to become the longest impeachment trial for a South Korean leader, marking 91 days this coming Saturday.

Former President Park Geun-hye's impeachment ruling took 91 days after the motion was passed, while Roh Moo-hyun's took 64 days.

"They know that this is going to be in the history books. Especially on Yoon's side they would be scrutinizing it with a magnifying glass to find any fault possible. So I think they really want to make sure that all the reasoning is absolutely water tight. I think they are really trying to do their utmost to avoid having a split judgment or even a minority judgment."

Observers also say the ruling on whether or not to uphold Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's impeachment is also likely to precede the presidential impeachment verdict, given that it is a strongly related matter that affects the nation's governance.

In any case, a decision on Yoon's impeachment is widely expected before two justices retire from the bench on April 18th.

Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.