Court Replaces Trial Panel for Nth Room Case... Judge Oh Deok-sik Voluntarily Requests Change

Seoul Central District Court / Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Jo] The court has replaced the judge presiding over the case of Lee Mo (16, online alias 'Taepyeongyang'), who was indicted for operating a Telegram sexual exploitation video sharing chatroom.

This comes just four days after a Blue House petition requested the removal of the judge handling the so-called 'Nth Room' operator trial from the case.

On the 30th, the Seoul Central District Court announced that Judge Oh Deok-sik of Criminal Division 20, who was presiding over the Nth Room case, requested a reassignment of the case himself, and in accordance with court regulations, the case was reassigned to Judge Park Hyun-sook of Criminal Division 22.

According to court regulations, the court may change the assigned judge of a case already allocated "when there is a significantly difficult reason in handling the assigned case and the presiding judge submits a written request stating the reason" among other conditions.

On the Blue House petition board, a petition titled "Opposition to Judge Oh Deok-sik, who is in charge of the Nth Room case, and a request for disqualification" was posted on the 27th.

The petitioner raised concerns about Judge Oh’s past rulings in sexual crime cases. They pointed out that Judge Oh showed a lack of gender sensitivity by acquitting Choi Jong-beom, the late Goo Hara’s ex-boyfriend, last year on charges of illegal filming.

They also criticized the acquittal of former Chosun Ilbo reporter Jo Mo, who was charged with sexually harassing the late Jang Ja-yeon.

The petitioner emphasized in the petition, "It is absolutely unbelievable that such a judge is now handling a major sexual exploitation and human trafficking crime in Korea. Considering the victims and the human rights of the people, he must never preside over sexual crime cases again."

As of 7 p.m. on the same day, the petition had gained explosive support with over 410,000 signatures.

Ultimately, Judge Oh’s request to change the presiding judge on the same day appears to have been due to the considerable pressure from public opinion.