March 27, 2025
SEOUL – The Constitutional Court of Korea has been deliberating suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment for more than a month, following the trial’s conclusion on Feb. 25, and could potentially push its verdict announcement to April, according to observers.
The eight justices have been holding deliberation meetings almost daily, but have pushed off announcing the verdict unprecedentedly.
Of the six impeachment verdicts made by the court since Yoon’s impeachment case was also delivered to them on Dec. 14, the court has made four unanimous decisions.
In the court’s impeachment verdict on Prime Minister Han Duck-soo Monday, five justices voted down the parliamentary motion to impeach him, while one voted to uphold it and two justices voted to throw out the motion entirely. It was the first ruling on an impeachment case directly related to Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
As of Wednesday 5 p.m., the court had yet to give any sign of when it would announce its ruling on whether Yoon will be removed. In the past, the court has typically announced the date it will issue the ruling two to three days in advance for security and preparation reasons.
For the fourth week straight, this Friday was considered the most probable date if the court was to move forward with delivering the verdict this week.
Initially, the court had promised to prioritize Yoon’s case over any other on Dec. 16.
However, 40 other constitutional complaints have been scheduled for rulings Thursday, so whether the court will handle its most important case or not this Friday remains uncertain.
Based on previous cases and the court’s schedule for announcing verdicts, it would be rare for the court to deliver three verdicts within a week.
The last time the Constitutional Court delivered verdicts on consecutive days was in 1995.
There is speculation that a ruling could come after the April 2 by-elections in certain regions, possibly on April 3 or 4, considering that the timeline is extremely tight for two of the justices on the nine-member bench, which continues to lack its ninth justice.
Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae and Justice Lee Mi-son end their terms on April 18.
In 2017, the impeachment ruling on former President Park Geun-hye came just three days before the acting chief justice’s retirement.