The Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the impeachment by parliament of interior minister Lee Sang-min for mishandling the deadly Itaewon crowd crush last October.

In its ruling on Tuesday, the nine-member bench said it would be difficult to constitutionally and legally consider the minister to have violated the laws on disaster and safety and public officials, and thus did not fail to fulfill his duty to protect the public.

Acknowledging that some comments by Lee about the tragedy were inappropriate, the court said, however, that they were not grounds for dismissal.

It added that the Itaewon tragedy, which resulted in 159 deaths and hundreds of injuries, is the cumulative outcome of a series of preceding events rather than an incident caused by one particular individual.

The motion to impeach the minister passed through the opposition-controlled National Assembly on February 8 with 179 of 293 lawmakers voting in favor of the move.

The crux of the impeachment was whether Lee complied with duties on disaster prevention and took appropriate response measures in the wake of the crowd crush.

The minister, who immediately returned to his post following the court's rejection, conveyed condolences to the bereaved families and apologized to the public for causing concern.

He then pledged all efforts toward assisting the victims of the recent heavy rainfall to restore normalcy in their lives.

Families of the victims said in a statement that the court rejected the state's responsibility bestowed by the Constitution and called on the minister to step down if he has any shame left.