Constitutional Court: "Distorting the Essence by Judging Justices' Tendencies... Infringement on Judiciary Authority"

The Constitutional Court recently rebutted the controversy over the political bias of some of its justices, which has been raised mainly by the ruling party, stating that "impeachment trials are not influenced by the personal inclinations of the justices."

Cheon Jae-hyun, spokesperson of the Constitutional Court, briefing. Photo by Yonhap News.

Cheon Jae-hyun, the Constitutional Court spokesperson, said at a regular briefing at 2 p.m. on the 31st, "The subject of impeachment trial review is whether the respondent's actions violate the Constitution or laws, and whether the degree of violation is serious," adding, "The judgment on this is made by objectively applying the Constitution and laws, not influenced by the personal inclinations of the justices."

He added, "There have been cases where the political circles and media uniformly judge the personal inclinations of the justices and distort the essence of the impeachment trial," and "The Constitutional Court expresses concern about the possibility of infringement on the judiciary's authority."

Regarding the controversy over former Acting President Moon's past personal blog posts, he said, "It seems the blog posts are the issue, but rather than looking at articles that excerpt only specific parts, since the original text is available, it would be better to read the entire content and judge according to the context," and added, "We have confirmed the acting president's opinion."

Earlier, in political circles, allegations of a private friendship between Acting President Moon and Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, as well as suspicions of connections between the families of Justices Lee Mi-sun and Jung Gye-seon and organizations pushing for or supporting President Yoon's impeachment, were raised, pointing to issues of political bias in the Constitutional Court.

Additionally, regarding reports that President Yoon's side is considering filing a recusation request against justices, Spokesperson Cheon drew a line, saying, "No documents related to a recusation request have been reviewed."

On the same day, the Constitutional Court additionally summoned former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, Secretary-General of the Central Election Commission Kim Yong-bin, Director of the National Security Office Shin Won-sik, Director of the National Intelligence Service Cho Tae-yong, and former 3rd Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service Baek Jong-wook as witnesses. Former 3rd Deputy Director Baek is a security expert who participated in the Central Election Commission's security inspection. The witness examinations for former Minister Lee, Director Shin, former Deputy Director Baek, and Secretary-General Kim are scheduled for the 11th of next month. The examination for Director Cho is scheduled for the 13th. However, the Constitutional Court dismissed the verification request regarding the number of voters filed by President Yoon's side on the 30th.