[2026 National Assembly Audit] Seoul High Court Chief Judge: "Oh Se-hoon and Yoon Suk Yeol Assigned to Same Panel by Chance"

Chief Judge: "The cases weren't assigned together; assignments are random"

Kim Daeung, chief judge of the Seoul High Court, said, "Cases are assigned randomly, and no specific case was assigned to a particular panel."

Kim Dae-woong, chief judge of the Seoul High Court, answers questions from members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee during a parliamentary audit of the Seoul High Court, Seoul Central District Court and other courts at the National Assembly on the 16th. Yonhap News.

Kim made the remarks on Oct. 16 during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, in response to a question about why the appellate panel that acquitted former President Yoon Suk Yeol was also assigned the case involving Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.

Kim Dong-ah, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, said that day, "The two cases have the same basic structure: politicians received opinion polls for election purposes and did not pay for them themselves." She added, "If courts reach different conclusions on the same issue, with the first-instance court and the appellate court disagreeing, and with different outcomes from one person to another, can the public trust the courts?" She continued, "People are concerned because the case involving Oh Se-hoon was assigned to the panel that acquitted Yoon Suk Yeol, and a ruling is approaching."

On the differing conclusions reached by the first-instance and appellate courts, Kim said, "I understand that the conclusions differed in the course of the trial under the court's system of appeals."

Earlier, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 7, presided over by Judge Gu Hoe-geun, acquitted former President Yoon and Myung Tae-gyun on Oct. 7 of charges of violating the Political Funds Act. The first-instance court sentenced Yoon to two years in prison, but the appellate court ruled that Myung's provision of opinion polls to Yoon and his wife could not be considered a political contribution under the Political Funds Act. Criminal Division 7 is also handling the appeal in Oh's case. Oh was fined 10 million won by the first-instance court for allegedly commissioning opinion polls from Myung ahead of the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election and having a supporter, Kim Han-jeong, pay the costs on his behalf.

Meanwhile, lawmaker Kim asked the chief judge to "submit documents supporting the claim that the assignment was made randomly."

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