Kim Jin-ae: "Judges Referring Judicial Farming Trials Practice 'Emperor Self-Restraint', Earning 12 Million Won Monthly Without Achievements"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] Kim Jin-ae, a member of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee from the Open Democratic Party, revealed on the 8th that "it has been found that the court paid over 1.3 billion KRW in salaries to eight judges who were prosecuted for abuse of judicial administrative power, despite them having no report achievements during their judicial research period."

On the 7th, during the Supreme Court audit, Rep. Kim stated, "The eight judges prosecuted for abuse of judicial administrative power received salaries without performing basic duties by taking judicial research as a form of 'emperor's self-restraint,'" and urged the immediate disclosure of salary details. She had requested the submission of the salary details ahead of the audit, but the Supreme Court had refused to provide them.

According to the materials submitted by the Supreme Court after the inquiry, the total salaries and allowances paid to the eight judges involved in the judicial scandal during their judicial research period amounted to approximately 1.32 billion KRW, averaging 164 million KRW per person. It was explained that the eight judges received about 12 million KRW monthly for an average of 1 year and 2 months.

The Supreme Court responded, "In general judicial research, submission of research reports is required, but in the case of judges suspected of judicial scandal, judicial research was ordered by the Chief Justice's personnel order to exclude them from trials, so no separate research reports were submitted."

Rep. Kim criticized, "It is a privilege that judges prosecuted for abuse of judicial administrative power receive full salaries while taking emperor's self-restraint," adding, "Ordinary citizens will feel disillusioned seeing this situation."

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