Pressure piles on chief justice

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) call for Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae to step down is triggering controversy. Since Cho said during a judiciary event on Sept. 12 that judicial independence should be upheld, the DPK and larger ruling bloc has aggressively asked him to account for the suspected biases of the judiciary. A few hardliners have even called for his his impeachment. DPK chief Jung Chung-rae referred to Cho as "the vanguard of anti-Lee Jae Myung political struggle" and said he should step down. DPK Rep. Choo Mi-ae, who chairs the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, accused Cho of "protecting the insurrectionists by delaying their trials." The DPK officials not only interpreted Cho's verbal call for judicial independence as a veiled opposition to the Lee administration's planned judiciary reform but also questioned his impartiality regarding insurrection cases in particular. In addition, a DPK-driven plan to create a new tribunal court to deal with insurrection cases stemming from the Dec. 3 martial law declaration by former PresidentWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times