Nervous DP member claims 'invisible hand' meddled in Constitutional Court ruling

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Liberal Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers expressed their anxieties with the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, a day before the appellate court decision on party leader Lee Jae-myung’s violation of election law.

This reaction follows the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Monday to dismiss the impeachment motion against acting President Han Duck-soo.

“I worry that some invisible hand might have been at work in the Constitutional Court’s delay in setting the ruling date,” DP supreme council member Kim Min-seok wrote on Facebook on Tuesday night. “All predictions that Yoon Suk Yeol’s removal would be announced by March 14 at the latest have been proven wrong.”

“It suddenly feels like everyone has become a fool. The situation is too suspicious.”

“I have no choice but to respect the Constitutional Court’s decision,” said party leader Lee at a supreme council meeting in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Monday.  

However, Lee also said Han’s actions “clearly and intentionally” violated constitutional duties.  

“We are now beyond a psychological civil war and facing continued warnings of a physical civil war,” said Lee, regarding the delay in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment ruling. “A swift ruling is the first step toward ending the ongoing turmoil and restoring normalcy in the Republic of Korea.”

Despite this strong expression of regret, some members of the DP remained confident that the decision on Han reinforced the idea that Yoon’s impeachment is a “foregone conclusion.”

DP Rep. Park Jie-won said “the Constitutional Court ruling is separate from President Yoon’s impeachment trial.”

In political circles, the outcome of Han’s impeachment trial has been considered a litmus test for predicting Yoon’s impeachment verdict.  

A key reason for Han’s impeachment motion was his alleged complicity in the approval, neglect and conspiracy regarding the emergency martial law declaration of Dec. 3, which are points that significantly overlap with Yoon’s case.

Of the five justices who voted to dismiss Han's impeachment, four noted in the ruling that there was no objective evidence or material proving Han had actively participated in legitimizing the martial law declaration by proposing the convening of a Cabinet meeting.

Supporters of party leader Lee cited the rulings as evidence that Yoon’s impeachment trial is already leaning toward approval.

The pro-Lee faction noted that Justice Kim Bok-hyeong, initially regarded as conservative at the time of his appointment, joined the majority opinion for dismissal rather than opting for rejection like Justices Cheong Hyung-sik and Cho Han-chang.

The court ruled against his impeachment in a 5-2-1 decision, with five justices voting to dismiss the motion. One justice voted in favor of impeachment, while two others argued the case should be rejected on procedural grounds and abstained from ruling on the merits of the case. 

Unlike a rejection ruling, which deems the lawsuit itself procedurally invalid, Kim issued a dismissal ruling that examined and judged the legitimacy of the impeachment charges.

“There were even rumors that Justice Kim would support rejecting Yoon’s impeachment outright,” said a pro-Lee figure to JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of Korea JoongAng Daily.  

“But in Han’s case, rather than simply rejecting it on the grounds of procedural deficiencies like ‘failure to meet the impeachment quorum,’ she went through a substantive review before ruling it out.”

“Justice Kim’s substantive review signals that she acknowledges the procedural legitimacy of Yoon’s impeachment motion,” said Jung Han-joong, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Law School, on the left-leaning YouTube channel “Speaks.”

The broadcast even described Justice Kim as a “double agent” within the conservative faction.  

However, anxiety is also spreading within the DP.

“If it had been an 8-0 dismissal, that would be one thing, but the divided stance of the justices is problematic,” a second-term lawmaker with a legal background reportedly told a group of legislators on Tuesday.  

The ruling reinforced the belief that the justices’ divided opinions are unexpectedly delaying Yoon’s impeachment verdict.

“At this point, any expectation of an 8-0 ruling in favor of impeaching President Yoon is gone,” said a DP official. “If the justices aim for a unanimous decision, it will take more time, which raises anxiety as it coincides with Lee Jae-myung’s appellate ruling on the Public Official Election Act.”

Lee’s appellate ruling is set for Wednesday.  

Conservative People Power Party floor leader Kweon Seong-dong said Tuesday that Lee “must make a public announcement that he will concede” to the ruling.  

Kweon added that Lee is “a teenage delinquent that has caused trouble at school and ran away from home.”

PPP Rep. Joo Jin-woo said Tuesday that the chances of a dismissal or rejection gets higher as Yoon's impeachment trial is delayed further, adding that it will further the political framing against the DP as a party that abused impeachment callings.

BY YOON JI-WON, KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]