PPP lawmaker says judges are now speaking out, urges Democratic Party to stop 'intimidating judiciary'

People Power Party lawmaker Yun Sang-hyun has taken aim at the Democratic Party of Korea, asking whether it intends to seize control of the courts after judges began pushing back against what he called intimidation of the judiciary.

Yun said Thursday on his Facebook page that critical posts had been appearing on the courts' internal network in response to the Democratic Party's moves to pressure the judiciary — including its push to launch a parliamentary investigation into Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae. Presiding judges, branch court chiefs and chief judges had expressed sympathy with the criticism, he said, and calls had emerged for convening the National Judges Representatives Conference.

"Now even judges are raising their voices one after another," Yun said. He added that one judge had lamented, "Has political power ever shown such disregard for the separation of powers and intimidated the head of the judiciary to this extent?"

Yun said the president and Assembly members are elected by the people, but judges are not chosen through elections. "That is a constitutional decision — that judges shall rule solely according to the Constitution, law and conscience, free from political interests and public opinion," he said. "The moment a verdict that wins votes displaces a just verdict, the trial is over."

He said the same principle applies to the appointment of Supreme Court justices. "The Constitution distributes authority among the chief justice's recommendation, the National Assembly's consent and the president's appointment," Yun said. "If elected power tries to neutralize the chief justice's right of recommendation by elevating only the president's appointment power, what meaning does the separation of powers have?"

He added that if a president who could be a party to litigation insists on appointing justices in line with personal interests, judicial independence cannot be guaranteed.

Yun also said the power to conduct parliamentary investigations is not unlimited. "Current law prohibits parliamentary investigations carried out for the purpose of interfering in the prosecution of ongoing trials or cases under investigation," he said. "Pressuring the chief justice every time an unfavorable ruling comes down, and trying to control judicial appointments according to the ruling party's wishes — that is not judicial reform. That is a seizure of the judiciary."

Yun said judicial independence is not a privilege for judges but a safeguard ensuring that ordinary citizens have somewhere to turn when facing power. "The Democratic Party must immediately stop its attempts to use the judiciary as a political instrument," he said. "I and the People Power Party will firmly resist every attempt to seize control of the judiciary in order to uphold the constitutional principle of the separation of powers and judicial independence."