South Korea’s Constitutional Court held its first hearing to decide whether suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol should be removed from office following his shock attempt to impose martial law last month.
It ended within four minutes due to Yoon’s absence – his lawyers had previously said he would not attend for his own safety, as there was a warrant for his arrest on separate sedition charges.
Yoon was suspended in December after members of his party voted with the opposition to impeach him.
However, he will only be formally removed from office if at least six of the eight council members vote to confirm the impeachment.
Under South Korean law, the court must set a new date for the hearing before proceeding without his participation.
The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Yoon’s lawyers indicated that he would appear at the hearing at a “convenient time” but disputed the court’s “unilateral decision” on trial dates.
On Tuesday, the court rejected the lawyer’s request to remove one of the eight judges from the proceedings.
Yoon has not commented publicly since parliament voted to impeach him on Dec. 14 and has spoken primarily through his lawyers.
Investigators are also separately preparing for another attempt to arrest Yoon for alleged sedition, after an earlier attempt on Jan. 3 ended in an hours-long standoff with his security team.
Yoon is the first sitting president of South Korea to face arrest. The second attempt to detain him could happen as early as this week, according to local media.
The suspended leader has not commented publicly since parliament voted to impeach him on December 14 and has spoken primarily through his lawyers.
Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3 threw South Korea into political turmoil. He tried to justify the attempt by saying that he was protecting the country from “anti-state” forces, but it soon became clear that he was motivated by his own political problems.
It followed an unprecedented few weeks in which the opposition-dominated parliament voted to impeach Yoon and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who succeeded him as acting president.
The crisis has hit the country’s economy, weakening the won, and global credit rating agencies warn of weakening consumer and business sentiment.
Former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye did not attend their impeachment trials in 2004 and 2017, respectively.
In Park’s case, the first hearing ended after nine minutes of her absence.
Roh was reinstated after a two-month review, while Park’s recall was upheld.
