PPP Calls Demand for Chief Justice Cho's Audit Appearance 'Tyranny and Abuse of Power' by Assembly

The People Power Party (PPP) came to the defense of Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae after the Democratic Party of Korea fiercely criticized him for not complying with a summons to appear as a witness in the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee's parliamentary audit, describing the move as "the National Assembly's tyranny and abuse of power against the judiciary."

Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sig wrote a post titled "Seven Reasons Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae Cannot Appear as an Audit Witness" on Facebook on Monday (October 5), outlining seven reasons why Chief Justice Cho should not appear as a witness in the audit.

Citing the "lack of legitimacy of the attendance request" as the primary reason, Floor Leader Jeong emphasized, "It is a unilateral witness adoption by the giant ruling party that disregarded bipartisan consensus, making it a summons request that lacks legitimacy as a representative body of the people."

He continued, "Summoning the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, one of the three leaders of the constitutional branches of government, to a parliamentary audit is the National Assembly's tyranny and abuse of power against the judiciary that violates the separation of powers," criticizing it as "a diluting summons intended to shift the blame onto the Chief Justice for the presidential office's unconstitutional re-nomination request and to blur the essence of the parliamentary audit."

Jeong also cited "violation of convention" and "unfairness," emphasizing, "There is no precedent for summoning a Chief Justice as a regular audit witness, and if the Chief Justice is called as an audit witness, the president should also be summoned to appear as a witness for the audit of the executive branch."

He further criticized, "The Minister of National Court Administration can sufficiently answer pending issues on behalf of the Supreme Court," adding that the move was "aimed at sparking wasteful political strife to yell at and humiliate the Chief Justice."

Shin Dong-uk, a member of the PPP's Supreme Council, appeared on KBS Radio's "Live Current Affairs" (Jeongyeok Sisa) the same day and remarked, "Questioning during parliamentary audits has traditionally been conducted with court heads led by the Minister of National Court Administration, and I believe this constitutes courtesy toward the head of the judicial branch." He added, "Chief Justice Cho also appears to have judged that avoiding it is reasonable out of concern that the audit would be distorted by the Democratic Party's political offensive."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.