Supreme Court enters new era as chief retires

Yang Sung-tae, now former chief justice, gets in his car after his retirement ceremony at the Supreme Court in southern Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae retired Friday after a 42-year judicial career, ushering in a major change to the ideological balance of the court to the left.

“Not a single day has gone by without worries,” Yang, who took the post in 2011 during the conservative Lee Myung-bak government, said at his retirement ceremony at the Supreme Court building in southern Seoul.

Under his leadership, the court went through some positive changes: the public was granted access to more information about trials which in some cases were even broadcast live to better satisfy the people’s right to know.

Yet he was criticized for his autocratic style of leadership. Over the past few months, he was even accused of making a “blacklist of judges,” which allegedly contains judges’ personal data including their political inclinations, as a means of strengthening his grip on power.

Also, Yang failed to earn the people’s trust, which he repeatedly said was the “only foundation of the country’s judicial system.”

An OECD survey revealed in 2015 that only 27 percent of Koreans said they had confidence in their country’s judicial system and courts. Korea was among the bottom four, along with Colombia, Chile and Ukraine.

Kim Meong-su, who will replace Yang following the National Assembly’s approval, is widely expected to bring major changes to the court with his views seen as mostly in line with the liberal governing party. Some are even calling him the “most liberal chief justice ever.”

Many conservative groups are already concerned about what his Supreme Court is expected to bring to society. The pace of change may accelerate even more next year when six out of its 13 justices are replaced.