Rebuilding Korea Party Unveils Impeachment Motion for Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae; Democratic Party Begins Discussions

[Anchor]

The Rebuilding Korea Party has unveiled an impeachment motion against Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae and urged the Democratic Party to join the effort. While the Democratic Party has also begun discussing response measures, including impeachment, the People Power Party pushed back, calling it a parliamentary coup intended to block the president's trial.

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.

[Reporter]

The Rebuilding Korea Party unveiled an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae at the National Assembly today (October 19).

The party claimed that Chief Justice Cho violated his duty of political neutrality during the process of overturning and remanding President Lee Jae-myung's Public Official Election Act case with a conviction intent.

It also included as grounds for impeachment allegations that Chief Justice Cho infringed upon the public's right to a speedy trial by refusing to re-recommend Supreme Court justices, as well as suspicions surrounding the payment of encouragement funds and the execution of special operational expenses.

[Shin Jang-sik / Leader, Rebuilding Korea Party: "Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae is merely a symbol of illegality and legal maneuvering. If we leave him as he is, we have no right to ask the public to abide by the law."]

The party urged the Democratic Party to join in pursuing the impeachment, proposing the formation of a joint task force and the holding of a joint general meeting of lawmakers.

The Democratic Party formalized discussions on impeachment, but stated that it will determine its direction of response after gathering opinions following the parliamentary audit.

[Cho Gye-won / Spokesperson, Democratic Party: "Focusing on sharing various illegal issues with the public, and also gathering relevant opinion within the National Assembly as much as possible..."]

In contrast, the People Power Party strongly protested, arguing that the pan-ruling bloc's talk of impeachment is aimed at blocking the resumption of President Lee's trial.

The party asserted that the intention is to suspend the chief justice's duties ahead of the regular reshuffle of judges in February next year to prevent President Lee's trial from resuming.

[Jang Dong-hyeok / Leader, People Power Party: "Impeaching a blameless chief justice to paralyze the Supreme Court is precisely a parliamentary coup that destroys the separation of powers—a real insurrection."]

With the Rebuilding Korea Party unveiling the impeachment motion, attention is focused on whether the Democratic Party will move beyond discussions and actually propose the bill.

Video by Yu Mi-ra
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.