South Korean prime minister reinstated as acting president

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has been reinstated as acting president, after the country’s constitutional court overturned his impeachment.

The court ruled by a margin of seven to one in favour of Han’s reinstatement.

Han became the country’s interim leader in mid-December following the separate impeachment of the conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Yoon was suspended from his job for controversially declaring martial law on 3 December, a move that plunged the country into its ongoing political crisis.

Just hours after the emergency decree was announced, a sufficient number of politicians managed to enter parliament to vote the measure down. Yoon was then impeached over the scandal on 14 December.

Han only served for two weeks as acting president before he was also impeached.

He had refused to appoint three judges to fill vacant spaces on the bench of the country’s constitutional court, something the opposition said made Yoon’s impeachment less likely.

Speaking to reporters after his reinstatement on Monday, Han thanked the court for what he called “a wise decision”.

He also called for national unity, saying: “There’s no left or right — what matters is the advancement of our nation.”

Yoon’s supporters welcomed the decision to reinstate Han.

However, analysts said that the court’s ruling should not make them too hopeful.

Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Centre for a New American Security in Washington, said that “it’s too soon to predict the court’s verdict on Yoon because the specific details of both cases and allegations are different”.

The country now eagerly awaits the constitutional court’s decision on whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment.

If the court rules against Yoon, he will be permanently removed from office and new elections will be called.