Change of Judge in Lee Jae-yong's Management Succession Allegation Trial... 930 Judges Transferred

Supreme Court Announces District Court Judge Appointments
Im Jeong-yeop and Kim Seon-hoe Transferred to Seoul Western District Court

Presiding Judge of Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's Case Retained

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Two chief judges presiding over the case involving allegations of management succession by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong will be replaced.

On the 3rd, the Supreme Court announced the regular personnel appointments for chief judges and other judges of district courts. With this personnel change effective on the 22nd of this month, Chief Judges Lim Jeong-yeop and Kim Seon-hoe of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25-2, who were presiding over the management succession allegations against Vice Chairman Lee, will be transferred to the Seoul Western District Court. Chief Judge Kwon Seong-su of the same division will remain in his position.

Chief Judge Kim Mi-ri of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 21, who is presiding over the case involving former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk’s family allegations, was expected to be transferred in this personnel reshuffle but will remain in her current post. Associate Judges Cha Seung-woo and Seo Hyo-seong will also stay. However, there is a possibility of their transfer to civil divisions or single-judge criminal divisions through future case allocation adjustments.

Chief Judge Son Dong-hwan of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 33, who sentenced Samsung Electronics Vice President Kang Kyung-hoon to prison in the first trial for charges related to the Everland union disruption conspiracy and is awaiting the Supreme Court ruling on the 4th, will retire from the bench. Judge Son has decided to leave the judiciary and train future legal professionals at Sungkyunkwan University Law School.

In this personnel reshuffle, the Supreme Court reduced the number of full-time judges in the Court Administration Office by five, following the plan to reduce non-judge staff in the office. Reflecting the intention to separate personnel management between local and high courts, 28 experienced judges were newly appointed as judges of high courts. Additionally, 128 long-term service judges were selected to work at 24 courts nationwide under the long-term service system. The aim is to minimize the regular judge personnel appointments held every two years, thereby reducing the Supreme Court Chief Justice’s personnel authority and preventing frequent changes in trial panels.

Meanwhile, the number of judges who resigned this year totaled 50. Although initial forecasts expected the resignation scale to far exceed the usual level, reaching 70 to 80, it was confirmed that 9 high-ranking judges including court presidents and 41 judges below chief judge level submitted their resignations.

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