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Choo Mi-ae, chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, attends the opening hearing at the Constitutional Court on September 9 in the impeachment trial of National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho. / Source: Yonhap News

Choo Mi-ae, chair of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee and a Democratic Party lawmaker, has renewed her demand for Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae to step down, linking him to former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

In a social media post on September 16, Choo wrote, “I once again urge Chief Justice Cho to resign.”

She accused Cho of copying Yoon’s tactics, saying, “Did Chief Justice Cho convene the national court presidents’ meeting by imitating the prosecutors’ general meeting that Yoon Suk-yeol called when he was prosecutor general? Back then, Yoon illegally gathered prosecutors to shield himself. Now Cho has summoned court presidents to claim judicial independence, rejecting the special tribunal on insurrection cases and rallying protection for himself.”

Choo argued that Cho and Yoon are undermining trust in the judiciary. “There is no collective reflection on the disillusionment caused by the chief justice’s election meddling and his stalling of insurrection trials. And yet, when I demanded accountability from Cho, Yoon immediately stepped in to defend him,” she said.

She went further, recalling Yoon’s past defiance: “Yoon refused to comply with an arrest warrant, mobilized bodyguards at his residence, and even said firearms could be used. After he was barely taken into custody, Cho’s appointee Ji Kwi-yeon violated the Criminal Procedure Act to release him again, and Yoon has since skipped trial nine times. The insurrectionist Yoon and the Cho who protects him are partners in distorting the trial.”

Choo concluded, “The chief justice should be raising his fist not against the National Assembly, which represents the people, but in line with the citizens who are demanding swift trials. Right now, the judiciary’s very existence is being denied by a man who refuses to appear in court even in his underwear when faced with an arrest warrant.”