Court administration chief pushes back on calls to impeach Chief Justice Jo over Seoul mayor's acquittal

Roh Kyung-pil, chief of the National Court Administration and a Supreme Court justice, pushed back Monday against Democratic Party lawmakers who cited Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's appellate acquittal to call for the impeachment of Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae, saying it was inappropriate to characterize the judiciary by what "Jo Hee-dae's court" did or did not do.

Roh made the remarks at a comprehensive audit of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, responding to Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sung-yoon, who asked whether impeaching Chief Justice Jo was the only answer. "The Supreme Court does not interfere in lower-court proceedings," Roh said.

Lee pointed to Oh's appellate acquittal on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, as well as reduced sentences handed down on appeal to former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and others in insurrection-related cases. "The public suspects the chief justice has sided with insurrection forces," Lee said. "Does the Jo Hee-dae Supreme Court have any intention of judging or rooting out the insurrection?"

Roh replied that while the chief justice heads judicial administration, no one — including the chief justice — may interfere in lower-court proceedings, and none do.

"Each bench independently determines guilt or innocence and sets sentences based on evidence and the facts of the case," he said. "The Supreme Court, the court administration, and the chief justice have absolutely no involvement." He added that characterizing the judiciary as "Jo Hee-dae's court" and attributing rulings to it was, in his view, inappropriate.

When Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Ki-pyo pressed him repeatedly on the Oh ruling, Roh said it was not appropriate for the court administration chief to comment on individual cases. "If there is any legal problem with a ruling, I believe the appeals process is fully capable of correcting it," he said.

The Democratic Party used Oh's acquittal Monday as a springboard to attack the judiciary and Chief Justice Jo, while the People Power Party fired back that the opposition's offensive was irrational and demanded that the trial of President Lee Jae Myung be resumed first.

Seo Young-gyo, the Democratic Party lawmaker who chairs the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said the court had acted strangely despite an overwhelming body of evidence. "The first-instance ruling laid out all the evidence — does anyone, even People Power Party members, seriously think this not-guilty verdict makes sense?" she said.

People Power Party lawmaker Kwak Gyu-taek shot back that Oh had faithfully gone through the judicial process and been acquitted. "Shouldn't the Democratic Party first be demanding to know why President Lee Jae Myung's case is not being tried more quickly?" he said.

Kwak accused the Democratic Party of laying the groundwork for Jo's impeachment from the very start of the audit. "It looks like they are stoking the impeachment fire again today," he said. "Claiming that the chief justice's impeachment grounds have grown because Oh was acquitted — is that sane? They have been saying nonsensical, irrational things throughout this audit."