Trials of Ruling Party Figures Including Kim Kyung-soo and Cho Kuk Postponed Until After April 15 General Election

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Trials of ruling party figures such as Kim Kyung-soo, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, and former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk are being postponed one after another until after the April 15 general election.

The Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Ham Sang-hoon) renewed the appellate trial procedure on the 24th for Governor Kim, who was indicted on charges of conspiring to manipulate online comments, and announced that both the special prosecutor and the defense counsel would be given an opportunity to argue at the trial on the 17th of next month. The resumption of arguments, decided at the January 21 trial, will thus take place after a long three-month interval. Originally, Governor Kim’s trial was scheduled for sentencing on December 24 last year, but the sentencing was suddenly postponed twice.

The trial schedule for former Minister Cho Kuk’s case, being heard by the Criminal Division 21 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Mi-ri), has also been significantly delayed. The first trial procedure was initially scheduled to begin in January, but after being consolidated with the cases of former Blue House Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Baek Won-woo and former Anti-Corruption Secretary Park Hyung-chul, the first pretrial conference was held only on the 20th of this month. The court set the next pretrial conference for the 17th of next month, after the general election, but the formal trial date for former Minister Cho to appear in court remains uncertain.

The case involving interference in the Ulsan mayoral election, also handled by the same court, is in an even more difficult situation. It was filed with the court on January 29 and classified as an urgent case requiring timely handling. When designated as a timely handling case, the intervals between trial dates are shortened for swift processing. However, this case did not have a trial date set for over two months after filing and was scheduled only for April 23, after the general election. Meanwhile, key figures in this case, such as former Blue House Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Han Byung-do and former Ulsan Police Chief Hwang Un-ha, have been confirmed as candidates for the Democratic Party of Korea in this general election.

The first trial of former Blue House Secretary for Public Office Discipline Choi Kang-wook was also scheduled for the 21st of next month, after the general election. Former Secretary Choi was assigned the number 2 spot on the Open Democratic Party’s proportional representation list in this general election. Inside and outside the court, there are remarks suggesting that "the court may have felt burdened to conduct trials before the general election."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.