Will Impeachment Proceedings Be Suspended If President Yoon Is Indicted? [Impeachment Q&A]

As the motion to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol has passed the National Assembly, attention is focused on whether President Yoon's impeachment trial and criminal trial will proceed simultaneously.

President Yoon Suk-yeol. Photo by Yonhap News

Article 51 of the Constitutional Court Act (Suspension of Trial Procedure) stipulates that "If a criminal trial is underway for the same reasons as the impeachment trial request against the respondent, the court may suspend the trial procedure." This means that if President Yoon is indicted on charges of rebellion and faces a criminal trial, the Constitutional Court may temporarily halt the hearing, observe the court's judgment, and then refer to it when deliberating on the impeachment.

Some in the political sphere speculate that based on this provision, if President Yoon is indicted on charges such as rebellion, the impeachment trial could be suspended. In this case, the impeachment trial would resume after the criminal trial verdict, potentially prolonging President Yoon's suspension from office.

In fact, there is a precedent where Prosecutor Son Jun-sung, indicted over the so-called 'whistleblower scandal,' requested to halt his impeachment trial until the appeal court's verdict was announced, and in April, the Constitutional Court decided to suspend his impeachment trial.

However, this provision states that the Constitutional Court "may suspend" the trial, meaning it is not a mandatory rule requiring the impeachment trial to be stopped. The Constitutional Court independently decides whether to suspend the trial procedure by considering the gravity and urgency of the matter.

Moreover, since the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial is not a procedure to determine the criminal liability of the respondent but rather to assess whether a public official violated the Constitution or laws and whether such violations warrant dismissal, it is quite possible that the impeachment trial will proceed separately from the criminal proceedings.