Judge Kim Ye-young (C), chair of the National Council of Judges, speaks during an extraordinary meeting of the council at the Judicial Research and Training Institute in Goyang, north of Seoul, on May 26, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) – A meeting of judges nationwide ended Monday without issuing a response to the controversy surrounding presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung’s election law violation case.
The extraordinary meeting of the National Council of Judges was held at the Judicial Research and Training Institute in Goyang, northwest of Seoul, with 87 to 90 of the 126 members attending in person or virtually.
“We decided to conclude today’s extraordinary meeting and resume it (at a later date),” a council official told reporters, noting the next meeting will be held virtually after the June 3 presidential election, at a yet to be determined date.
“At the next meeting, we plan to have additional debates on the agenda items that were put forward and then put them to a vote,” the official said.
The meeting followed controversy over the Supreme Court’s unusually quick decision earlier this month to send Lee’s case back to the Seoul High Court for a retrial.
The Supreme Court said in its ruling that errors were found in the lower court’s decision to acquit the presidential front-runner of charges of making false statements during the previous presidential race in 2021.
Lee’s liberal Democratic Party (DP) denounced the ruling as interference in the upcoming presidential election, as a guilty verdict could bar him from running in the race.
A total of seven items were introduced at Monday’s meeting, including two that were put forward in advance — affirming that a trial’s independence is a value that must be guaranteed unconditionally and perceiving “with seriousness” the undermining of confidence in the judiciary.
The judges discussed whether to release a public statement regarding the fairness of trials and concerns about violating the independence of the judiciary.
With a split of opinion between those favoring issuing a statement and others preferring another meeting, they opted to hold another meeting by a vote of 54 to 34.
It is rare for the council to decide to continue a debate at a subsequent meeting.
“As judicial reform has become an election issue, concerns have been growing in and outside courts that expressing a position through a council vote could influence the election,” a council official said.
“The members talked about this, and it was proposed internally that we schedule another meeting, so we voted on that,” the official added.
The council is made up of 126 delegates of judges at all levels of courts, and the attendance of a majority is required to open a meeting. Agenda items are approved with consent from the majority of attendees.
(Yonhap)
