(Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s Constitutional Court has begun reviewing President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment case, and investigators reportedly said they plan to question him this week.
Judges started their deliberations on Monday, court official Lee Sang-jin said by phone. Meanwhile, South Korea’s joint investigation team will ask Yoon to appear on Wednesday for questioning over alleged insurrection and power abuse, Yonhap News reported.
The impeachment motion against Yoon for his brief martial-law decree was passed over the weekend, after opposition managed to secure enough votes from the ruling party.
Yoon has been suspended from power and is awaiting a court ruling on whether he will be removed or restored to office, a decision that can take up to 180 days from the passage of the impeachment. In previous cases, the process typically took two to three months.
The court is supposed to have nine members, but currently only has six justices. The opposition party wants the remaining nominees to be approved by December. It will ultimately be up to the acting president to decide whether to appoint them.
The speaker of the National Assembly promised that the parliament would act quickly to appoint the remaining judges, two of whom have been nominated by the opposition and one by the ruling party.
Yoon said Saturday he would never give up, signaling his intent to fight in court to retain his power. Investigative officials are seeking to question him over opposition allegations that he committed treason with his Dec. 3 martial law declaration. They may even seek an arrest warrant for him, local media reported.
Meanwhile, the leader of South Korea’s ruling party Han Dong-hoon said he’s stepping down at a televised press conference on Monday, following mounting calls for his resignation.
Yoon appointed Han as his first justice minister after winning the 2022 presidential election. The two increasingly fell out with each other over personnel issues after Han left the government and took the helm of the People Power Party earlier this year.
Han called for supporting the impeachment just before the parliament put the motion to a vote on Saturday, drawing criticism from within his party that he was helping lay a path for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung to take power should Yoon be ousted.
While apologizing to PPP supporters who are unhappy with Yoon’s impeachment, Han said Monday he doesn’t regret supporting it.
(Updates throughout with start of court review)
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