Chief Justice Cho Says "Difficult to Testify at Audit": Ruling Party Protests, Opposition Defends

[Anchor]

Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae has submitted a statement to the National Assembly stating that he will not attend the upcoming parliamentary audit of the Supreme Court scheduled for Tuesday (October 6). Although Chief Justice Cho previously stated that he would explain his refusal to resubmit candidate nominations for Supreme Court justices during the parliamentary audit, he drew the line at appearing in person as a witness. The Democratic Party criticized this as self-righteous arbitrariness, while the People Power Party pushed back, calling it "politics of intimidation."

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.

[Reporter]

The Democratic Party disclosed that Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae submitted a written opinion to the National Assembly on October 2, stating that it would be difficult for him to appear and testify as a witness at the parliamentary audit of the Supreme Court on October 6.

In the statement, Cho argued that demanding testimony regarding his authority to recommend Supreme Court justices violates the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

He also asserted that such a demand goes against the spirit of the National Assembly Act, which does not impose an obligation on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to appear and answer questions.

He further cited as reasons for his non-attendance that disclosing the contents of consultations with the president would be inappropriate and that an investigation could potentially be launched due to related criminal complaints.

Earlier, Chief Justice Cho commented on his refusal to resubmit nominations for Supreme Court justice candidates as follows:

[Cho Hee-dae / Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (September 28): "I heard that people have many questions. I will speak about such matters in the future, through the parliamentary audit or other avenues."]

However, he drew the line at answering questions as a witness during the parliamentary audit, prompting strong pushback from the Democratic Party.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Democratic Party Lawmaker): "This is a violation of the separation of powers. It is not judicial independence, but an act of self-righteous arbitrariness that places oneself above the law."]

During parliamentary audits of the Supreme Court, the chief justice typically leaves after delivering opening remarks, leaving the minister of National Court Administration to answer lawmakers' questions. Taking this into account, the ruling bloc passed a resolution in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to adopt Chief Justice Cho as a "general witness" to directly question him on the exercise of his nomination authority.

The Democratic Party maintains that Cho is obligated to attend as a general witness and stated that it will decide whether to take legal action based on how Chief Justice Cho responds.

The People Power Party criticized the move as "politics of intimidation" intended to humiliate the head of the judiciary.

Last year, Chief Justice Cho, who was also designated as a general witness and submitted a statement of non-attendance, appeared at the audit venue and gave opening remarks, but left after about an hour without taking the witness oath or answering any questions.

(Video by Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing by Park Seon-soo | Design by Kim Min-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.