Jang Donghyuk: "Ruling Party's Impeachment Bid Against Cho Hee-dae Aims to Suspend Him from Duties... Fears Lee Jae-myung's Trial Resuming"

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok said on Oct. 19, referring to calls from the ruling camp to impeach Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Cho Hee-dae, “The goal is to prevent the regular judicial personnel appointments next year. They are afraid that President Lee Jae-myung’s trial could resume if the panel changes, so they are colluding with the Constitutional Court to suspend the chief justice from his duties.”

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok delivers opening remarks at a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Oct. 15, 2026. Photo by Yoon Dongju.

At a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly that day, Jang said, “Impeaching an innocent chief justice and paralyzing the Supreme Court is nothing less than a parliamentary coup and a real insurrection. Go ahead and push through the impeachment of the chief justice or the cancellation of the indictment. You will all end up in prison trying to protect an unqualified president.”

Jang said, “The pro-Lee faction and Munjo Teollaeyu are seeing eye to eye for the first time in a long while,” adding, “The ruling party itself knows better than anyone that this matter does not even begin to qualify for impeachment. Even if it pushes ahead with impeachment in the National Assembly, there is no chance it will be upheld. The goal is to suspend him from his duties.”

He said, “The ruling party looks ready to push through a special counsel investigation to cancel the indictment once the parliamentary audit is over. But no matter how hard it tries, it will be useless. If the trial resumes, a conviction will first be finalized in the election-law case. At that moment, the president’s election itself will be invalidated, and the three syllables of Lee Jae-myung’s name will be erased from the constitutional history of the Republic of Korea.”

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