September 25, 2025
SEOUL – Tensions between the judicial branch and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea escalated Wednesday, as the party voted through an unprecedented motion to summon Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de for a parliamentary hearing.
The conservative opposition People Power Party boycotted the vote and condemned the move as a fatal blow to the separation of powers.
The renewed controversy also comes as President Lee Jae Myung’s administration advances a broader judicial overhaul focused on splitting the prosecutorial functions of indictment and investigation between two new bodies and increasing the number of Supreme Court judges.
The ruling party has raised suspicions that Jo, just weeks before the June 3 presidential election, orchestrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a lower court acquittal in Lee’s election law violations case and send it back for retrial. Some critics have said that the ruling was issued with unusual speed, meeting the legal deadline, prompting speculation that it was timed to undercut Lee’s candidacy.
Democratic Party lawmakers have gone further, claiming Jo privately assured former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo that the court would “take care” of Lee’s case once it reached the top court. Rep. Boo Seung-chan alleged the remark was made at a luncheon on April 7, days after the Constitutional Court upheld then-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment, which triggered the early election.
Jo has denied the charges outright. In a rare statement issued through the National Court Administration, he said he had “not met former Prime Minister Han or any outside figure regarding this case.”
Yet the ruling party is doubling down. Senior figures, including party leader Jung Chung-rae, have demanded Jo’s resignation, accusing him of shielding allies of Yoon’s failed martial law gambit by dragging out trials. Spokesperson Park Soo-hyun declared that Jo had “already lost his qualifications as chief justice,” urging him to submit to a full investigation.
The People Power Party has erupted in anger, portraying the move as a brazen attempt to seize control of the judiciary. Floor Leader Song Eon-seog thundered that Sept. 30 would “go down as the day the separation of powers died.” Senior spokesperson Choi Eun-suk dismissed the ruling party’s claims as “fabricated political theater,” warning that fabricating evidence to undermine judicial independence “amounts to a national crime.”
While the Democratic Party says the hearing is a necessary reckoning with “election interference,” the People Power Party insists it is a prelude to impeachment, designed to sideline Jo and promote associate chief justices appointed under the previous liberal Moon Jae-in administration.
President Lee and his party are seeking to advance a broad overhaul of the justice system, including a near doubling of the number of Supreme Court justices and a breakup of the prosecution service into separate bodies responsible for its indictment and investigation functions.
The amendment to the Court Organization Act, drafted by the Democratic Party, would expand the bench from 14 justices, including the chief justice, to 26. Four new justices would be added each year over three years, with the law taking effect after a one-year grace period. If fully enacted, the Supreme Court would operate at almost twice its current size by 2029.
That timeline also means President Lee could appoint as many as 22 of the court’s 26 justices by the end of his term, including 10 replacements for current justices set to retire by 2030. The prospect has alarmed many in the legal community, who warn it could consolidate political influence over the judiciary.
The Constitution provides that “the qualifications of judges shall be determined by law.” The chief justice is appointed by the president with the consent of the National Assembly after a confirmation hearing. Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the president upon the recommendation of the chief justice and with the consent of the Assembly after a confirmation hearing. The members of the top court bench must be at least 45 years of age and have served for at least 20 years as a judge, prosecutor or lawyer.
The ruling party has called expansion necessary, citing the need to remedy the top court’s mounting caseload. Last year, nearly 30,000 cases were filed with the Supreme Court, including about 13,000 civil appeals and 25,000 criminal appeals, according to data from the National Court Administration. On average, each justice is responsible for more than 2,000 cases a year.
The Korean Bar Association called the expansion “the most realistic and direct way to ease bottlenecks in the appeals system and to guarantee the right to a fair trial,” in a statement released in May.
Korea University law professor Cha Jin-a, however, believes “The very fact that President Lee would appoint all 12 additional justices during his term undermines the Supreme Court’s political neutrality and independence.”
“If the true purpose of expanding the number of Supreme Court justices is to resolve the appeals backlog, the priority should first be to strengthen the quality of trials in the lower courts so that the rate of appeals decreases.”
A representative council composed of judges elected from courts at all levels was set to discuss the Democratic Party’s judicial reform initiatives on Wednesday evening.
The amendment passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee in June and is pending a vote at a plenary session. However, the exact timeline for its passage through the National Assembly has not yet been confirmed.
