South Korea's Constitutional Court delivered a landmark verdict on December 18, 2025, unanimously upholding the impeachment of National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho, resulting in his immediate and formal removal from office due to his direct complicity in supporting former President Yoon Suk Yeol's controversial and short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3, 2024.

The justices determined that Cho had "actively disrupted" the constitutional operations of the legislature by ordering the deployment of hundreds of police officers to cordon off the National Assembly premises, explicitly aiming to impede lawmakers from accessing the main chamber and casting votes to overturn Yoon's emergency decree within hours of its announcement.

Furthermore, the court condemned Cho's decision to dispatch police units to facilitate the military's forcible occupation of two National Election Commission offices, actions ostensibly justified by Yoon as probes into baseless allegations of electoral irregularities, thereby encroaching upon the independence of a vital democratic institution.

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This historic ruling represents the first time a serving commissioner general of the National Police Agency has been ousted through Constitutional Court proceedings; Cho, who was swiftly impeached by parliament, arrested shortly thereafter, and subsequently released on bail in January 2025 citing medical needs for cancer treatment, now confronts an ongoing separate criminal trial on charges of abetting rebellion.

The judgment reinforces a broader wave of institutional accountability in the aftermath of Yoon Suk Yeol's aborted power grab, following the former president's own impeachment, suspension, and eventual removal from office by the same court in April 2025, coupled with his rearrest in July on severe indictments including insurrection—a crime carrying potential penalties of life imprisonment or capital punishment—underscoring the judiciary's resolute stance against threats to South Korea's democratic framework.

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