S. Korean leader gets job back

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s maverick President Roh Moo Hyun won back his job today when the nation’s constitutional court ruled that his impeachment by a conservative-dominated parliament on minor electioneering charges was unjustified.

The ruling by the nine-member court closes a bizarre episode in which the world’s 13th-largest economy was left effectively without a head of state for 63 days. It will also set the stage for Roh, a 57-year-old former labor leader, to pursue more freely his agenda that includes major reforms for business and politics and a more independent foreign policy from that of the United States.

In its ruling, the court held that the first-ever impeachment of a South Korean should be overturned because Roh’s offenses were minor. “What Roh did was not of such critical importance to . . . threaten our freedoms or the democratic system,” the court said in a ruling read by justice Yun Young Chul on national television. “It cannot be said that he lost the people’s trust to a degree that we should take his office away.”

The ruling was widely expected after national assembly elections last month in which Roh’s supporters swept to power. Roh is to resume presidential activities immediately, taking back the reins of power from Prime Minister Goh Kun, who served as acting president but had virtually no authority to shape policy. A new national assembly, which for the first time in South Korean history is dominated by left-of-center parties, is set to take office June 1.

One coming test will be whether South Korea follows through with a pledge to send 3,000 combat troops to Iraq. Incoming members of the national assembly are pushing Roh, once a vocal opponent of the Iraq war, to renege on the promise because of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq and the prison abuse scandal.

Roh is coming back from his enforced vacation to find the economy stalling and North Korea continuing its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“Now we will see whether Roh is an ideologue or a pragmatist,” said Hahm Sung Deuk, a political scientist at Korea University. “He will be under a lot of pressure from his own people not to send troops to Iraq. But at the same time, he has a terrible economy and in order to improve it, he needs a good business climate and closer relations with the United States.”

There was no comment from Roh, who is expected to make a televised statement Saturday.