In a hectic day for South Korea’s already beleaguered political scene, Acting President Han Duck-soo resigned – almost immediately followed by the resignation of his successor-to-be, Choi Sang-mok. The chaos on May 1 suggests South Korea won’t see stability at the top level of its government until the result of the presidential election on June 3 – and possibly not even then.
Han Duck-soo, the prime minister, became acting president after Yoon Suk-yeol was impeached for his illegal declaration of martial law. (Han himself was impeached by the National Assembly in December, but was restored to office by the Constitutional Court shortly before the same court unanimously upheld Yoon’s impeachment.) Yet Han has been hinting at seeking the office in a more permanent capacity, repeatedly refusing to rule out the possibility of running in the presidential election.
On May 1, Han officially resigned.
“I made a final decision to step down from my position to do what I can do and what I have to do to overcome the crisis we are dealing with,” Han said during his farewell address on Thursday.
Even though he did not specifically elaborate the main reason for his resignation, it is widely expected that he will announce his bid for the presidency on May 2, as Han said he put down the heavy responsibility of the acting presidency to do more important tasks.
However, the public seems cold to Han’s candidacy. In the past weeks, polls clearly showed the majority of the public would not support Han’s bid, as he worked for Yoon as the prime minister. In light of what caused the snap presidential election, it is ironic that the prime minister for the impeached government would choose to run. In addition, most South Koreans wanted Han to prioritize the stable running of the government, including the fair management of the presidential election, rather than pursuing his own political ambitions.
Han was set to be replaced as acting president by Choi Sang-mok, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, who also held the office while the Constitutional Court deliberated on Han’s impeachment case. But Choi’s return to the acting presidency ended before it officially began. The National Assembly, which is controlled by the opposition Democratic Party (DP), submitted an impeachment bill against him late on the evening of May 1 for his repeated refusal to abide by the verdict of the Constitutional Court over the appointment of a justice for the court while he was acting president. The DP had discussed impeaching Choi during his first tenure on the same charges.
At 10:28 p.m. local time, Choi announced he was resigning. He had been set to take over as acting president at midnight.
Later that evening, Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly, dismissed the impeachment bill against Choi after confirming his resignation.
Now, the acting presidency will fall to Lee Ju-ho, the deputy prime minister and minister of education.
The extraordinary sequence of events underscored the chaos that has plagued South Korean politics since Yoon’s shocking declaration of martial law on December 3. The office of the president (or acting president) has changed hands five times: from Yoon to Han, Han to Choi, then back to Han, then back to Choi, and now to Lee. And there’s no guarantee that it will end there, as South Korea’s opposition has called for every member of Yoon’s Cabinet to be investigated over their roles in the martial law declaration.
Critics from the conservative camps have condemned the DP’s moves to impeach the Cabinet members who had reportedly been involved in Yoon’s declaration of martial law, accusing the opposition of attempting to throw the country into anarchy. However, the DP and the other opposition parties have clearly stated that the most important priority is to eradicate the so-called “insurrection” forces who tried to open a new chapter of dictatorship. That means every Cabinet member should be thoroughly investigated to find out who supported Yoon’s illegitimate declaration of martial law.
Meanwhile, the race to elect a new president was also thrown into turmoil on Thursday, with South Korea’s Supreme Court overturning the acquittal of Lee Jae-myung, the DP candidate and the heavy favorite to win. Lee now faces a retrial that could see him barred from standing in an election – if the legal process moves quickly enough to conclude before June 3. If not, the People Power Party would almost certainly seek to challenge a Lee victory on legal grounds, and it will ceaselessly raise questions on his eligibility to run the country even if he wins the election.
According to the Constitution, a sitting president is protected from being investigated or prosecuted except on charges of insurrection or treason. Lee’s case involves the Election Probation Act; in November 2024 he was found guilty of violating the act by lying during his campaign for the 2022 presidential election. If the case has not been resolved by June 3, and Lee does win the election, there will be fierce arguments that a ruling must be made even after he assumes the presidency.
In this case, if Lee wins the election, the Constitutional Court may again be forced to make an all-important ruling: this time on whether a sitting president is protected from any ongoing trials that had been underway before his election. So far, legal experts generally say that the cases against Lee will be paused should he become president and resume after he completes his term.
With the Supreme Court’s unprecedentedly quick ruling throwing the into question the political fate of the favorite presidential candidate, South Korea’s political and constitutional chaos have entered a new phase, one that will likely last even after the June 3 presidential election.
