South Korea's constitutional court on Thursday upheld the impeachment of the police chief for his involvement in former impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol's botched martial law bid last December.

The court's ruling confirmed the immediate removal from office of Cho Ji-ho, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency.

The motion to impeach Cho was passed in the National Assembly on December 12 last year for blocking lawmakers from entering the parliamentary building and deploying police officers to the National Election Commission during the emergency martial law.