Constitutional Court Concludes Arguments by Justice Minister Park Seong-jae... Judgment Date to Be Scheduled Later

The Constitutional Court announced that it has concluded the first hearing on the impeachment trial of Minister of Justice Park Seong-jae and will designate a date for the ruling later.

Park Sung-jae, Minister of Justice, is attending the first impeachment trial hearing held on the 18th at the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

On the 18th at 2 p.m., the Constitutional Court held the first hearing of Minister Park’s impeachment trial at the Grand Bench in Jongno-gu, Seoul. On this day, Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyeong-bae stated, "This concludes the arguments," and added, "We will announce the date of the ruling later." This comes 96 days after the National Assembly passed the impeachment motion on December 12 last year. Previously, the Constitutional Court held a preparatory hearing on the 24th of last month to organize the issues and evidence.

At the hearing, Minister Park’s side argued, "This impeachment motion should be dismissed as inadmissible due to the hasty procedure of the National Assembly’s impeachment resolution, the unspecified and unclear grounds for impeachment, and the irrationality of the grounds themselves." On the other hand, the National Assembly’s side countered, "Minister Park effectively sympathized with acts of rebellion, refused to submit requested materials without justifiable reasons, ignored the National Assembly, and left the plenary session, demonstrating a lack of will to uphold the Constitution and laws."

In his final statement, Minister Park said, "The claim that the emergency martial law declaration stipulated in the Constitution is equivalent to rebellion is a legal absurdity. It has been revealed through testimonies in the National Assembly and investigations by the prosecution and police that there is no evidence proving my cooperation or conspiracy." He added, "This impeachment is solely an abuse of the National Assembly’s authority aimed at suspending the Minister of Justice’s duties, and it is nothing more than the tyranny of the majority party exploiting the law by riding on the principle of majority rule. The Constitutional Court should swiftly dismiss the case to curb the National Assembly’s tyranny."

Jeong Cheong-rae, Chair of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said, "Minister Park should know the spirit of the Constitution better than any other minister, and he should have truly risked his life to oppose the president’s unconstitutional and illegal declaration of martial law. Although it is uncomfortable to ask for Minister Park’s dismissal in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution, since rebellion is rebellion, if he was directly or indirectly involved, a stern dismissal must be carried out according to the Constitution."

On this day, Chair Jeong also urged the swift designation of a ruling date for the impeachment trial of President Yoon Seok-yeol. He said, "Today is the impeachment trial of the Minister of Justice, but the entire nation’s greatest concern is when the ruling date for the impeachment trial of the rebellion ringleader suspect Yoon Seok-yeol will be set. I earnestly request that the ruling date for the president’s impeachment, including the dismissal of Minister Park, be designated as soon as possible."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.