Supreme Justice Faces Impeachment

The largest opposition Democratic Party said Friday it would propose a bill to impeach Supreme Court Justice Shin Young-chul for his attempts to meddle in trials presided over by junior judges.

This is the first ever action to impeach an incumbent Supreme Court Justice.

But the endorsement of the bill at the National Assembly is highly unlikely because the ruling Grand National Party opposes it.

Woo Sang-ho, spokesman for the opposition party, said "Shin ignored our repeated calls for stepping down on his own."

Shin was embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal in March after a judge at the Seoul Central District Court disclosed multiple e-mails Shin sent to junior judges responsible for trials over anti-U.S. beef protestors to encourage them to speed up trials and find those accused guilty.