▲ Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae answers reporters' questions as he arrives at the Supreme Court in southern Seoul on March 3, 2026. (Yonhap)

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Chief justice urges Assembly to review judicial reform bills

SEOUL, March 3 (Yonhap) -- Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae said Tuesday that he fully respects the National Assembly's recent passage of three judicial reform bills but called for efforts to minimize any negative impact the new laws may have on the public.

Cho made the remarks regarding the ruling Democratic Party-led bills that establish a new offense of "legal distortion," allow constitutional appeals of court rulings and increase the number of Supreme Court justices from the current 14 to 26.

"I entirely respect the legislative activities of the National Assembly. The judiciary will, under all circumstances, fulfill its mission imposed by the Constitution. (But) I want to ask that (the Assembly) carefully considers until the end whether there is any content that is harmful to the people," Cho told reporters on his way to work at the Supreme Court building in southern Seoul.

"There is no perfect system in the world and we will seek agreement on areas that need improvement. I earnestly request (the Assembly) to carefully consider whether this sudden transformation will be helpful to the people and whether it will be detrimental."

Cho then expressed his disagreement with the Democratic Party's claim of distrust in the judiciary as a justification for the reform bills.

He said the results of recent surveys by polling agencies such as Gallup showed that trust in the U.S. judiciary was only 35 percent, compared with 47 percent in the South Korean judiciary. "It's not desirable to baselessly denigrate our system or demonize judges over individual trials."

Cho also emphasized that the nation has always ranked at the top in the field of civil trials in the evaluation by the World Bank.

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