Seoul: South Korea’s Constitutional Court says it has begun its first meeting on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

South Korea’s opposition-controlled parliament on Saturday vowed to impeach Yoon over his short-lived martial law this month.

Yoon’s presidential powers have been suspended. Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon from office or restore his presidential powers.

The court says its first meeting on Yoon’s impeachment began on Monday morning as scheduled. It gave no further details.

Earlier, the South Korean law enforcement authorities had pushed to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree as the Constitutional Court is set to begin its first meeting Monday on Yoon’s case to determine whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.

A joint investigative team involving police, an anti-corruption agency and the Defense Ministry plans to convey a request to Yoon’s office that he appear for questioning on Wednesday, the police said, as they expand a probe into whether his ill-conceived power grab amounted to rebellion.

Yoon was impeached by the opposition-controlled National Assembly on Saturday over his Dec. 3 martial law decree. His presidential powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to formally remove him from office or reinstate him. If Yoon is dismissed, an election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.

Yoon has justified his martial law enforcement as a necessary act of governance against an opposition he described as “anti-state forces” bogging down his agendas and vowed to “fight to the end” against efforts to remove him from office.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have poured onto the streets of the country’s capital, Seoul, in recent days, calling for Yoon’s ouster and arrest.

It remains unclear whether Yoon will grant the request by investigators for an interview. South Korean prosecutors, who are pushing a separate investigation into the incident, also reportedly asked Yoon to appear at a prosecution office for questioning on Sunday but he refused to do so. Repeated calls to a prosecutors’ office in Seoul were unanswered.

Yoon’s office has also resisted a police attempt to search the compound for evidence.

The request came before the Constitutional Court meets to discuss the case later Monday. The court has up to 180 days to rule. But observers say that a court ruling could come faster. AP