Impeachment of Han Duck-soo
Opposition Democratic Party Floor Leader Park Chan-dae announced plans to impeach Han on 24 December following his veto of two special counsel bills investigating Yoon and First Lady Kim Keon-hee.
On 26 December, the impeachment motion was formally introduced after Han blocked the appointment of three justices to the Constitutional Court of Korea, whose nominations had been approved by the National Assembly.
Only one Korean president has been removed from office through impeachment (Park Geun-hye in 2017), which requires a two-thirds majority voting in favor in the legislature.
The People Power Party (PPP) argued that, since Han had assumed the role of the president, a two-thirds majority was required for impeachment.
In contrast, the opposition Democratic Party (DPK) maintained that a simple majority was sufficient, as Han remained a cabinet minister.
The opposition DPK argued that acting presidents could fill the positions, emphasizing that the presidential appointment of National Assembly-recommended nominees is largely procedural.
[13] Incumbent Prime Minister Han Duck-soo assumed the role of acting president pending the Constitutional Court's decision on whether to remove Yoon from office.
Among the bills vetoed were proposed amendments to the Grain Management Act, which would have required the government to purchase surplus rice to stabilize prices during market fluctuations.
Other measures he vetoed included a bill requiring companies to submit requested data to members of the National Assembly, saying that it was an invasion of constitutional rights to privacy.
PPP lawmakers opposed Woo's decision, calling for his resignation and declaring his ruling invalid while chanting abuse of power as the session was underway.
[26] Han said he respected the outcome of the vote in the National Assembly and would await the Constitutional Court's verdict, adding that he would suspend his duties to not add to the chaos.
He also apologized to the public for the ongoing political crisis and asked the country to make a "wise judgment" to enable the nation to reach an "era of rationality".
[37] Opinion polling with a sampling size of a thousand released by The Korea Times and Hankook Research on 31 December 2024 found that 61% of respondents supported Han's impeachment (45% strongly approved) while 36% were opposed.
[39] Following the impeachments of Han Duck-soo and Yoon Suk Yeol, another survey by Hankook Research found 56% of the total respondents supported "amending the Constitution to reform the current single, five-year presidential term", while 39% opposed it.
Seventeen percent of the respondents cited "the need to improve the current electoral system, which allows a candidate to win the presidency without securing a majority of the vote".
