South Korea politics gets 3 major shake-ups in 24 hours as election looms

The top court cast doubt on the frontrunner's eligibility to run for the presidency, while the resignations of the prime minister and finance minister shook the interim government.

South Korea’s top court cast doubt on Thursday on frontrunner Lee Jae-myung’s eligibility to run for the presidency, while the resignations of the prime minister and finance minister shook the interim government in place since December’s martial law.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho took over as acting president, the third since the martial law decree, barely a month before a snap election. The vote was called after the Constitutional Court removed former President Yoon Suk Yeol from office over his brief martial law attempt.

The election race was rocked by a Supreme Court ruling that could threaten the candidacy of former opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, who has dominated all opinion polls.

The court overturned an earlier ruling that had cleared Lee, saying he had violated election law by publicly making “false statements” during his 2022 presidential bid. It sent the case back to the appeals court and ordered it to issue a sentence, which could bar Lee from running for office for up to five years.

South Korea has been led by a rotating cast of acting presidents since Yoon’s impeachment on December 14, hampering efforts to steer Asia’s fourth-largest economy through the choppy waters of U.S. tariffs.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who has been serving as acting president, stepped down on Thursday ahead of an expected entry into the presidential race. Han is expected to declare his presidential run on Friday.

Han, 75, had initially lasted less than two weeks in the acting post and was himself impeached and suspended on December 27 after clashing with the opposition-led parliament by refusing to appoint three more justices to the Constitutional Court.

However, the court reinstated Han on March 24.