The Constitutional Court, with Historical Verdict Just Ahead

The Constitutional Court was busy giving final touches to the details on Thursday, with the final verdict on the president impeachment one day ahead.

The judges decided the final written verdict during the last general conference held yesterday afternoon. Also, details including the formalities of a verdict and whether or not to publicize the minority opinion including the text of a judicial decision and the order of opinion presentation were finally settled.

The verdict was decided to proceed with the presiding judge, Yun Young-chul, reading the outline of this case and one of the judges giving the reasons of the court’s decision and reading the text of a judiciary decision. The verdict is scheduled at 10 a.m. on May 14 at the grand court on the ground floor, and is not expected to last more than an hour.

The judges including Court President Yun seemed to be rigid, going directly up to their offices without answering the reporters’ questions despite arriving around 8:30 a.m., earlier than usual. Court President Yun, in particular, didn’t answer the reporters during lunchtime as well as on the way to work. Presiding Justice Choo Sun-hoe said shortly, “I came to the office early because I’m completely occupied,” on the way to work. Asked about his present state of mind with the verdict one day ahead, he stated, “I can’t afford to make comments yet,” adding, “We will do our best to give final touches to the written verdict until the verdict is given even though we can’t be perfect.”

The court is arranging for practical affairs including security concerns, live broadcasting, and distribution of admission tickets to be smoothly conducted on the actual day of the verdict. The court is particularly concentrating its efforts on adding to the staff for building security and persons on night duty and re-checking the security facilities, considering that general conferences are held whenever necessary.

The police is making provisions against emergencies which may occur around the time of the verdict, increasing the security personnel for court’s building from the existing two platoons consisting of 60 soldiers to five companies consisting of 600 soldiers, and also strengthening patrol.

In the meantime, the court is expected to distribute admission tickets in the morning on the day of the verdict, May 14 to the 60 people who draw the lucky numbers for seats available to the public. The number of application for seats was 1,278, the competitive rate recording 21.3 to 1.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com