mpeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will make a closing statement on Tuesday in a Constitutional Court trial reviewing his impeachment, as public hearings wrap up and his political fate is placed in the hands of eight judges.
The embattled president faces being removed from office less than three years into his five-year presidency if the court upholds parliament’s impeachment, which accused him of declaring martial law on December 3 with no justifiable constitutional grounds.
Yoon has said in his trial that he had a right to declare martial law but never meant to impose full military rule, stressing that he intended to sound a warning over the opposition Democratic Party’s abuse of its parliamentary majority.
The impeached president and the chairman of parliament’s judiciary committee, Jung Chung-rae, will give their final statements on Tuesday at a hearing that is due to start at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT).
The justices are expected to take days to rule on whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.
Recall that Yoon has said during the trial that martial law, which lasted just six hours before he rescinded the decree, was not a failure but simply ended sooner than he intended.
According to him, there was no point in debating accusations that he ordered military commanders to break into parliament to remove lawmakers gathering to lift the martial law decree because nothing actually happened and nobody was harmed.
His arguments drew a rebuke from parliament, which stated that the president is incapable of judging what constitutes a national emergency that requires such an extreme act and that he might attempt to impose martial law again if he is reinstated.
South Korea court to hear closing statements in Yoon’s impeachment trial
