With President Park Geun-hye defying calls for her resignation over a nepotism scandal tied to her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil, opposition parties are campaigning for a parliamentary impeachment motion to remove Park from office.

But the road to impeachment is fraught with many hurdles.

Not only do the lawmakers have to clear a strict threshold at the National Assembly to open a trial, they have to convince judges at the Constitutional Court that the case warrants her removal.

Constitutional law scholars interviewed by The Korea Herald agreed that the president’s wrongdoing -- most notably allowing Choi, without an official title, to meddle in state affairs -- could meet the legal standard for launching an impeachment case.

“The president is subject to the impeachment process because she violated both the Constitution and other laws,” said Huh Young, professor emeritus at Kyung Hee University Law School and the first president of the Constitutional Research Institute for the Constitutional Court.

“By consulting with Choi Soon-sil on important state affairs and following through on her instructions, she violated the Constitution. Her allegation prescribed in the prosecutors’ arraignment shows that she also breached other laws,” he said.

The Clause 65 of the Constitution stipulates that a sitting president can be impeached if he or she is found to have breached the Constitution or other laws while performing their official duties.

The prosecutors said earlier this week the president had played a significant role in helping Choi commit wrongdoings. Choi, a civilian who has never held public office, was indicted for extracting money from conglomerates and coercing some of them to give contracts to companies owned by herself or her associates.

The scholars also noted that the president had violated key clauses in the Constitution designed to preserve democratic value, such as those stating that Korea is a democratic republic and its president is elected by the people.

But the professors were divided as to whether the impeachment motion would clear the final hurdle at the Constitutional Court, in which at least six out of nine judges must approve it to remove the president from office. Local media label eight of them as conservatives.

Lee Heon-hwan, a constitutional law professor at Ajou Univeristy Law School, said that if the judges have their decision clouded by the fact that they were appointed by the president, they may end up abandoning their obligation.

Some worried the impeachment motion might not be compelling enough to convince the lawmakers during the process at the National Assembly. More than 200 lawmakers out of the 300-member National Assembly should approve the impeachment. That would require 29 votes coming from across the aisle.

“Impeachment could be difficult if the special probe fails to yield a decisive evidence linking Park to corruption charges,” said Lim Ji-bong, professor at Sogang University Law School. “It is also unclear whether two-thirds of the National Assembly lawmakers would really cast their vote in a secret ballot.”

Most scholars suggested the court would approve the motion for the sake of the country, but highlighted that the judges -- who had applied a strict standard on reviewing the impeachment -- would consider many factors playing into the decision-making process.

One factor to consider is the public outrage over the president. They said that the more pressure mounts on the president through either a special probe’s investigation or massive rallies, the more likely the court would be to rule against the president.

“It is hard to tell about the court’s ruling. My view is that the judges would watch the public sentiment carefully before they decide,” said Han Sang-hie, a professor at Konkuk University Law School.

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)