The Democratic Party of Korea will postpone impeachment of Supreme Court chief justice and ask the high court to change the trial date in the Lee Jae-myung case (South Korea)

On the 4th, the Democratic Party of Korea, South Korea's largest opposition party, announced that it would "decide today whether to vote on impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, who has been in the running within the party."
"We have decided to put it on hold," he said. Lawmakers who are opposed to the Supreme Court's ruling on the party leader Lee Jae-myung's violation of the Public Offices Election Act have been calling for his impeachment.
Noh Jong-myung, spokesman for the party's election strategy committee, gave the explanation to reporters after an emergency general meeting of lawmakers at the National Assembly on the same day.
The Supreme Court had previously handed down a verdict of guilty in Lee's case of violating the Public Offices Election Act.
The ruling led to a decision to send the case back to the Seoul High Court. In response, some within the party called for the impeachment of Cho and other Supreme Court justices. According to spokesman Roh, at the general meeting, "Many lawmakers said that the actions of the judiciary were unconstitutional.
"The court ruled that the ruling was illegal. There was a minority opinion that it was difficult to determine whether the ruling was unconstitutional or illegal, but the consensus was that it was clear that the judiciary had interfered in politics."
On the other hand, there were also many opinions that further process is needed to inform the public of this issue.
"The majority of the opinions were in favor of considering measures including impeachment, but it would be politically inappropriate to immediately announce that impeachment has been decided," the report said.
"There were also many opinions that we should take preemptive measures because we don't have much time," Lu said.
"Some people called for preemptive impeachment, but others said this was dangerous," he said. "There was also the risk that he would be disqualified from being a candidate after the high court ruling."
"There was a sense of opportunity. Many lawmakers argued that the high court procedures should be delayed as long as possible, and quite a few were of the opinion that the high court should not issue a ruling at all."
In light of these discussions, the court explained that it had "decided to request that the trial date for the retrial at the high court, scheduled for the 15th, be changed."
"Some people have said that we should even demand the cancellation of the deadline," Lu said, but added, "However, there is a possibility that this demand will be accepted.
"The prevailing view was that the likelihood of the case being brought to trial was low," he said. In conclusion, "We decided to request the cancellation or postponement of the trial before the trial date of the 15th, but this request was not accepted.
"The issue of how to respond in this case remains an issue," he said. The assembly lasted for about two hours and 45 minutes, with 38 members speaking and lively discussion taking place.
The Democratic Party plans to hold press conferences in front of the Seoul High Court every day from the 7th to once again demand a change in the trial date.