The People Power Party said Thursday that Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok's call for Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae to resign over his written recommendation of Supreme Court justice candidates amounts to grounds for impeaching President Lee Jae Myung, criticizing the remarks as unconstitutional overreach.
PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok said at a supreme council meeting Thursday that Kim's first act upon taking office was to invoke the impeachment of the chief justice. "This makes it abundantly clear why President Lee Jae Myung went to such reckless lengths to install Kim Min-seok as party leader," Jang said. "If the impeachment of the chief justice is being raised, that is ultimately an unconstitutional ground for impeaching the president himself."
Jang said requiring the chief justice to pre-clear his judicial nominations with the president's preferences would undermine the judiciary's independence. "If the president seizes that authority, violates judicial independence, and appoints justices to his liking — with the final destination being a not-guilty verdict for the president — that is plainly unconstitutional conduct," he said.
"If it is the president who is orchestrating all of this, and if Kim is making inflammatory remarks at the president's behest, then the grounds for impeaching President Lee are clear," Jang added.
Jang also said that if the chief justice and the judiciary had resolved to defend their own independence, "the first thing they must do is resume President Lee's trial." He questioned how anyone could accept a situation in which the Democratic Party threatened to impeach the chief justice over trial delays while the president's own trial had been halted entirely.
Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik also attacked at the meeting, saying Cheong Wa Dae had tried to exploit the so-called "convention" of prior consultation to strip the chief justice of his nomination authority and hand it to the president as a personal appointment power.
Jeong said the Democratic Party had unilaterally passed a motion at the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to summon Chief Justice Jo without bipartisan agreement. "The Democratic Party is a contradictory, hypocritical force that condemns the chief justice for breaking convention while breaking convention itself," he said.
He added that claiming the chief justice's failure to brief the president in person was grounds for impeachment "is an idea that wholesale rejects the separation of powers and democracy." "It is not Chief Justice Jo but President Lee who has staged a judicial coup — humiliating the chief justice and trampling the judiciary," he said.
Supreme council member Shin Dong-wook said the president holds appointment authority over judges and commissioners allocated to the National Assembly, but that does not mean the Assembly must seek the president's permission. "Is this country a monarchy?" he asked, adding that appointing justices to the president's personal taste would itself constitute judicial manipulation.
Shin also noted that the Court Administration Office had asked through the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs to arrange a meeting with President Lee, but scheduling could not be coordinated and the written submission was a last resort. "Why did the president not meet with the chief justice? Was it a trap set to give grounds to attack him?" he said.
Supreme council member Kim Jae-won directed his remarks at Kim Min-seok, saying that calling the head of the judiciary a "delinquent student" was "the language of a school bully sitting in the back of the classroom, intimidating weaker classmates." He said the real substance behind the inflammatory rhetoric was a demand to include Seoul High Court Judge Kim Min-gi on the list of candidates recommended for the Supreme Court.
"Judge Kim is known to have been active in the Woori Law Research Society and has faced questions about his impartiality," he said, adding that Cheong Wa Dae's efforts to elevate Judge Kim to the Supreme Court would continue.
Youth supreme council member Woo Jae-jun also questioned whether the Democratic Party, which had broken every convention itself, had any standing to invoke convention. He called the pressure on Chief Justice Jo to resign "one of many attempts to dismantle the judicial system in order to secure a not-guilty verdict for President Lee — and it will be the crowning move."
"They have already expanded the number of Supreme Court justices. The last remaining step is to fill those seats with justices of their own ideological stripe," Woo said. "Once that is done, the takeover of the judiciary will be complete."
Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yun said in a statement that if the Democratic Party was threatening the chief justice over just two justice seats not going its way, "one can only wonder what it plans to do over the remaining 20." "Once all 22 seats are filled, it will not be rulings but a party's flag that decides what justice means," she said.
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
