Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea and the chair of the central campaign committee, said on the 16th, “We will use all the powers of the National Assembly to achieve major judicial reform.” This comes after the Supreme Court noted that ‘whether to suspend the trial of Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, in case of his election, is at the discretion of the responsible court,’ which has been interpreted as interference in the presidential election.
On this day, the floor leader stated at a central campaign committee meeting held at the party's central office that “the Supreme Court is interpreting Article 84 of the Constitution, which defines the presidential privilege of non-prosecution, arbitrarily.”
Article 84 of the Constitution states, ‘The president shall not be prosecuted during the term of office except in cases of insurrection or treason.’ The legal community has been divided over whether this constitutional provision on presidential non-prosecution privilege can be applied to ongoing trials that began before election.
On the 14th, the Supreme Court stated in a response submitted to the National Assembly that “the question of whether to apply Article 84 of the Constitution to a criminal defendant who has been elected president is a matter for the responsible court handling the case to decide.”
The cases in which the candidate is currently being tried include ▲the appeal trial for violating the Public Official Election Act ▲the second trial for instigating perjury ▲the first trial concerning the Daejang-dong, Wirye, Baekhyun-dong, and Seongnam FC cases ▲the first trial of the SSANGBANGWOOL remittance case to North Korea ▲the first trial of the corporate credit card misuse case.
Among these, the schedules for the appeal trial for violating the Public Official Election Act, the Daejang-dong case, and the second trial for instigating perjury have been postponed to after the presidential election on June 3 due to requests for delay from the candidate's side.
Democratic Party officials assert that all ongoing trials should be suspended if the candidate is elected.
Park noted, “I clearly warn the Supreme Court. This is the time of the sovereign, and the judgment is not made by the judge but by the sovereign people.”
He added, “No matter how solid the judicial cartel may be, in the end, the sovereign people will prevail,” and stated, “The Democratic Party will work with the public to restore the trust in the judiciary that has been undermined by some politically corrupt judges.”