South Korea’s Constitutional Court Rejects Impeachment of Chief State Auditor, Top Prosecutors

Members of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party had boycotted the partisan Dec. 5 impeachment vote, saying the opposition-led effort was politically motivated.

(L-R) Constitutional Court Judges Chung Kye-sun, Kim Bok-hyeong, Jung Jung-mi, Lee Mi-son, acting head of the Constitutional Court Moon Hyung-bae, Kim Hyung-du, Cheong Hyung-sik and Cho Han-chang attend the first formal hearing of the impeachment trial of suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Jan. 14, 2025. Kim Min-Hee/AFP via Getty Images

South Korea’s Constitutional Court has ruled that opposition lawmakers’ impeachment of four top public officials in December was unconstitutional.

The eight-member court struck down the impeachment motions, supported by Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) members in the opposition-led National Assembly, against chief state auditor Choe Jae-hae and three top prosecutors in a unanimous 8-0 vote, local media reported.

The prosecutors were Lee Chang-soo, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office; Lee’s deputy chief Cho Sang-won; and the head of the second anti-corruption investigation division in Lee’s office, Choi Jae-hun.

Choe was impeached for allegedly conducting a poor review of suspected irregularities surrounding the 2022 relocation of the presidential office after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s unexpected election.

Prosecutors in the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office were impeached for deciding against indicting First Lady Kim Keon Hee following a probe into her alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme involving import car distributor Deutsch Motors Inc.

Prosecutors said they did not pursue charges against the first lady, citing a lack of evidence that Kim had been aware that convicted former Deutsche Motors chair Kwon Oh-soo was masterminding an investment fraud scheme.

The support of at least six justices was needed for the impeachment to be upheld in the court. The decision returns the officials to their duties.

Explaining their decision to not uphold the legislature’s partisan impeachment, the court said that Choe’s Board of Audit and Inspection “conducted an audit of whether legally set procedures were followed in the decision-making process behind the relocation of the presidential office and residence, and there are no circumstances suggesting it was a poor audit.”

In the prosecutors’ case, the court ruled they did not abuse their authority by questioning the first lady at a location outside of the prosecution’s office and that no false claims were made.

The court also cleared Choe of any wrongdoing in his auditing of the former chair of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, Jeon Hyun-heui, who had referred him to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), an agency set up during the former Moon administration.

Impeachments Triggered Martial Law Decree: Yoon

The opposition party’s efforts to pursue the impeachment of the public officials were cited by Yoon as a trigger for him to declare a brief period of martial law on Dec. 3, which he said he used as a warning to opposition parties to cease their “anti-state behaviour,” which he said was paralyzing the duly-elected government.

Two days later, despite a lack of bipartisan support, the DPK went ahead to impeach Choe and the three prosecutors.

Members of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the Dec. 5 impeachment vote, saying the opposition-led effort in the National Assembly was politically motivated.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office led the investigation and prosecution of a case in which DPK leader Lee Jae-myung was sentenced on Nov. 15, 2024, to a one-year suspended prison term for violating election law by making false statements during his 2022 presidential campaign.

Lee is appealing the lower court decision. The Seoul High Court is expected to announce its verdict on March 26, which could impact a presidential bid by Lee if the parliament’s Dec. 14 impeachment of Yoon is upheld, which would trigger a snap election.

“Since a guilty verdict in a case against the leader of the main opposition party is imminent, they are trying to get around it by impeaching the president and holding an early presidential election,” Yoon said in a televised speech on Dec. 12 ahead of the impeachment vote.

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) has conducted audits of public institutions, including the National Election Commission (NEC), an independent body responsible for ensuring fair elections. The NEC had refused to cooperate with requests from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service to audit its computer systems amid concerns from the ruling PPP about election integrity and potential foreign interference by North Korea and the Chinese Communist Party.

The BAI also said it found evidence of nepotism and financial mismanagement at the NEC in another audit.

Yoon said on Dec. 12 that with his martial law order, he had ordered the Minister of National Defense to inspect the NEC’s computer systems as the BAI’s efforts were being blocked.

“When the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea recently vowed to impeach the Chief Prosecutor and Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the prosecutors who investigate and audit their corruption, as well as the Chair of the Board of Audit and Inspection, a constitutional body, I decided I could no longer sit idly by,” the president said during the speech.

Compounding the political turmoil facing South Korea due to its deadlocked legislative and executive branch, its Constitutional Court is also facing criticism for political bias.

Two acting presidents standing in for Yoon attempted to withhold the appointment of a ninth justice recommended by the opposition-led National Assembly to the Constitutional Court amid concerns about a lack of impartiality, including from Ahn Chang-ho, the head of South Korea’s human rights commission and a former Constitutional Court justice, local media have reported.

Yoon Awaits Court Ruling on His Impeachment

Yoon was impeached on Dec. 14 by the National Assembly over his martial law declaration. He is accused of leading an insurrection and abuse of power, charges he denied.

“The declaration of martial law is a highly political decision by the president and can only be overturned by a request to do so from the National Assembly. I immediately accepted the National Assembly’s request to lift martial law,” he said in the March 12 speech.

“Viewing emergency measures aiming to save the country as an act of insurrection—an attempt to destroy the country—puts our constitution and legal system at serious risk,” he said.

Park Joo Hyeon, a former Special Inspector General of the Blue House, said in a February post on the social media platform X, “Now, in South Korea, the far-left Constitutional Court justices who were appointed under the previous leftist Moon Jae-in administration and the left-wing justices who were appointed by the National Assembly that was formed through the fraudulent election are trying to push for the impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yeol. They are trying to impeach President Yoon by any means necessary and establish a pro-China government.”

A decision on Yoon’s impeachment is due by June 11 but could come as soon as this month, given the case’s urgency and public interest. Tens of thousands of South Koreans have been taking to the streets, both in support and against Yoon, amid ongoing controversy facing the country’s National Election Commission and voting integrity.