The Constitutional Court on Jan. 23 rejected a National Assembly vote to impeach Korea Communications Commission (KCC) head Lee Jin-sook. / News1

South Korea’s Constitutional Court has rejected the impeachment motion against Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Chairman Lee Jin-sook. Yet the Democratic Party of Korea, the main opposition party that initiated the motion, has continued to criticize Lee. The Democratic party has emphasized that four Constitutional Court judges voted in favor of the impeachment motion, but all four of these judges were appointed during the former Moon Jae-in administration or recommended by the opposition party.

Before Lee’s appointment, the Democratic Party pressured two former KCC heads to resign voluntarily and forced the acting chairman to step down by repeatedly using impeachment motions against them as threats. The party filed an impeachment motion against Lee just two days after she took office as KCC head, effectively paralyzing the commission for 174 days.

Even the Democratic Party likely did not expect the impeachment motion against Lee to pass the National Assembly. At the very least, the party should apologize for disrupting government operations through excessive and politically motivated impeachment motions, but it has shown no such accountability.

Under the Constitution, impeachment is reserved for public officials who violate the Constitution or the law. Constitutional Court precedent strictly limits impeachment to cases of “grave unconstitutional acts or misconduct.” Historically, even when certain parties held a parliamentary majority, they refrained from wielding impeachment motions for political gain out of respect for constitutional and legal principles. However, such principles cannot be expected from the Democratic Party today, which has earned a reputation as a “serial impeacher.”

Since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took office, the Democratic Party has proposed a staggering 29 impeachment motions—likely the highest figure in the world. Of these, 13 were passed in the National Assembly. The Constitutional Court ruled on four of these cases, which were all dismissed. The outcome is not surprising, considering that most of these impeachment attempts were political maneuvers aimed at shielding Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung from his legal issues. Even Democratic Party lawmakers often struggled to recall specific grounds for each impeachment motion.

The criminal law punishes false accusations aimed at wrongfully incriminating individuals, as they disrupt the state’s judicial functions and harm individuals. Legal experts argue that if not for the immunity granted to lawmakers, the Democratic Party’s excessive impeachment motions could constitute false accusations. The party is now considering introducing an impeachment motion against acting president Choi Sang-mok. The Constitutional Court must go beyond merely dismissing unfounded impeachment motions and issue a clear warning against the Democratic Party’s anti-democratic overreach.