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| The Supreme Court accepted the resignation of Lee Soo-jin, Monday, who wants to run for the parliamentarian election in May. /Yonhap |
By Kim Se-jeong
Lee Soo-jin, a former district court judge, resigned from her post Monday to run in the upcoming general election, a move that has drawn criticism for "damaging the integrity" of judges.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee submitted a resignation letter Dec. 31, and the Supreme Court accepted it Monday.
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| Lee Soo-jin |
Lee is heading to the ruling Democratic Party which had asked her to join it in advance of the upcoming April 15 elections.
The 52 year old became a judge in 2002. She built up her career at the Incheon District Court, Seoul Appeals Court, and Seoul Central and Daejeon district and family courts. Right before leaving, she was the head judge at the Suwon District Court.
During a 2018 telephone interview with JTBC, a cable news channel, she alleged that Yang Sung-tae, a former Supreme Court chief justice from 2011 and 2017, had pressured his junior colleagues to put off ruling on wartime labor conscripts' compensation suits filed against Japanese firms for five years, in an attempt to curry favor with former President Park Geun-hye and to use the delay as a bargaining chip to establish a de facto second Supreme Court. Yang was formally indicted and put behind bars earlier this month.
During the same interview, Lee also claimed that she challenged the authorities at work and had suffered a demotion as a consequence.
An official from Lawyers for a Democratic Society, an NGO, said the ruling Democratic Party tapped her because it deemed her appropriate for the judiciary reform it aspires to achieve in the next parliamentary session.
But the reactions from court officials have been divided. Some support her while others wonder "Why Lee was chosen." Her interview was important but not critical to Yang's indictment. Some also suspect Lee might have had a hidden agenda when she gave the interview.
Many judges have left their jobs to pursue their political ambitions, but it is unusual, as in Lee's case, to join a political party directly. But Lee is not the first to do so. In 2012, former judge Seo Ki-ho quit, joined the now-defunct United Progressive Party but was not elected.
One common path for political career change for the judges was the presidential office or the Ministry of Justice. Judges were and still are sent to assist Cheong Wa Dae and the ministry. However, no matter how they arrived at the National Assembly, they always receive similar criticism for a lack of integrity.
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