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.
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.
