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President Yoon Suk-yeol delivers an address from the presidential office in Seoul on Dec. 7, 2024, in which he apologizes for his earlier short-lived declaration of martial law. (courtesy of the presidential office)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has reportedly determined that impeachment proceedings would be preferable to the early resignation scenario currently being pushed by his own People Power Party.

Speaking on Tuesday, a key ruling party official quoted Yoon’s chief of staff Chung Jin-suk and senior presidential secretary for political affairs Hong Cheol-ho as saying, “If it goes to impeachment, it goes to impeachment. It’s not set in stone that we’d lose in the Constitutional Court.”

The president’s impeachment would require the agreement of six out of nine Constitutional Court justices, but with three vacancies currently on the court, all six remaining justices would have to agree. The presidential office appears to have concluded that the likelihood of this is low.

This suggests very little chance that Yoon will accept the scenarios proposed by the People Power Party’s “political stabilization task force” the day before, which included Yoon’s resignation in February followed by a snap election in March or a resignation in March followed by an election in May.

“The mood right now is one where they aren’t having any of the PPP’s early resignation scenarios,” a ruling party official said.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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