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Yoon Ho-jung, head of the central election committee for the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), speaks during a meeting of senior campaign officials at the party's headquarters in Seoul on May 8. / Source: Yonhap News

The Democratic Party (DP) on May 8 welcomed the court’s decision to delay the appellate trial of its presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung until after the upcoming election, calling it a “natural course of justice.”

Yoon Ho-jung, head of the DP’s central election campaign committee, said during a strategy meeting held at party headquarters in Yeouido, “The court must also reschedule all remaining hearings currently set during the official campaign period to after the presidential election. That is the only way the judiciary can resolve the controversy it has brought upon itself.”

Lee is facing a retrial in a case related to alleged violations of the Public Official Election Act. The court’s recent decision to postpone the proceedings until after the vote has sparked heated responses from both political camps.

Kang Hoon-sik, director of the party’s situation room, praised the ruling as “entirely reasonable and self-evident.” He warned, however, that “the judicial coup is not over,” arguing that public distrust in the judiciary remains unresolved due to what he described as its politicization.

“Now the public will ask: if even a presidential candidate is subjected to such unjust hardship, how much harsher must it be for ordinary citizens?” Kang said.

He further asserted that there is only one path forward for the judiciary to restore public trust: “Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, who has caused this crisis of confidence, must resign voluntarily.”

“As long as Chief Justice Cho remains in office, there will be no recovery of judicial independence or public confidence in a judiciary that has meddled in politics,” Kang concluded.