Constitutional Court Starts Impeachment Trial

As the National Assembly passed an impeachment motion against President Roh Moo-hyun, the Constitutional Court started to proceed with the impeachment trial on March 12.

The head of the Constitutional Court, Yoon Young-chul, said, “We will be prompt and just in proceeding with the trial since it is such a grave national affair. Judges will make a decision only under the constitution without the intervention of the legislative, judicial, and administrative power.”

Yoon, regarding the time for a decision, said, “We will take the basic steps of the examination of the impeachment resolution, its delivery, and so on. Political schedules such as the general election will be excluded from our consideration.”

As the National Assembly introduced the impeachment resolution of President Roh, the Constitutional Court chose Judge Joo Sun-hoi as the chief umpire judge through the electronic allotment system. It will soon hold a council of all nine judges to discuss how to conduct the case.

It was said that the Constitutional Court might consider calling in the president to testify in the trial.

Koreans will have to elect a new leader if more than six of the nine judges vote to impeach him. Otherwise, the impeachment motion will be rejected.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com