[The Public = Reporter Kim Jong-yeon] Lawmakers from the governing coalition, led by the Democratic Party, have formed a group to pursue the impeachment of Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae and released a draft motion. With 112 signatories, the effort already exceeds the one-third threshold of all seated members (99) needed to file an impeachment motion.
Lawmakers and legal insiders said the \"Group of Lawmakers for the Impeachment of Cho Hee-dae\" met at the National Assembly on March 25 to discuss filing plans and the timetable. Attending were Democratic Party members Kim Moon-su, Seo Mi-hwa, Seo Young-kyo, Lee Seong-yun, Lee Jae-gang, Jeon Jin-sook, Jeong Jin-wook and Jo Kye-won; Kim Jun-hyung of the Jo-guk Innovation Party; Han Chang-min of the Social Democratic Party; and independent Choi Hyuk-jin.
The lawmakers cite two primary grounds for impeachment. First, they fault last May’s Supreme Court decision that reversed and remanded President Lee Jae-myung's Public Official Election Act appeal — a ruling the group says amounted to a finding of guilt. Second, they allege constitutional and statutory violations tied to the December 3 emergency-martial-law episode. The draft accuses the court of orchestrating a rushed, politically motivated retrial intended to strip a leading candidate of eligibility ahead of the June 3 early candidate registration deadline, and it characterizes the ruling as a \"judicial coup\" attempting to seize power through verdicts rather than force.
The draft also alleges that, after the martial-law episode, judges repeatedly dismissed arrest warrants in alleged insurrection-related cases and deliberately delayed proceedings. Because it singles out rulings by individual Seoul District Court judges as part of the grounds to impeach the chief justice, the measure is likely to provoke controversy. Democratic Party leaders say the motion does not represent official party policy, but with the filing threshold met, supporters could move it to a floor vote at any time.
Critics in the legal community have pushed back. Since February 2023, beginning with then-Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and continuing through last December with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the Democratic Party filed a total of 29 impeachment motions during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
The motions targeted 23 public officials; 13 passed the full assembly and resulted in suspensions from office. To date, the Constitutional Court has upheld only one impeachment — that of former President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The Seoul High Court’s 7th Criminal Division, which is overseeing President Lee Jae-myung's remanded Public Official Election Act case, issued a presumed-date order on June 9 last year, effectively leaving the trial without a firm schedule. Trial dates for related matters — including the Daejang-dong embezzlement and breach-of-trust allegations, alleged misuse of a Gyeonggi Province corporate credit card, witness coaching, and illegal transfers to North Korea — were similarly left without set dates.
