The Constitutional Court was set to rule Tuesday on whether to endorse or reject the National Assembly's impeachment of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over last year's deadly crowd crush in Seoul.
The court was scheduled to announce its decision at 2 p.m., 167 days after the opposition Democratic Party-controlled National Assembly passed the impeachment motion to hold him accountable for October's crowd crush that left 159 people dead in Seoul's Itaewon district.
Lee has been suspended from office since the motion passed through the National Assembly on Feb. 8.
If the Constitutional Court upholds the impeachment, Lee will be immediately removed from office. But he will be reinstated as minister if the impeachment is rejected.
Consent from six of the nine Constitutional Court justices is needed to dismiss Lee as minister.
The main focus of the court's deliberations on the case has been whether Lee fulfilled his duty as interior minister in charge of public safety to take steps to prevent the tragedy and whether the government's response was appropriate.
The Constitutional Court has held four rounds of public hearings on the case to hear from officials from the interior ministry, the national police and firefighting agencies and the bereaved families of crowd crush victims.
Source: Yonhap News Agency