The Democratic Party of Korea on the 18th proposed the "law to establish dedicated courts for insurrection and state capture cases," centered on creating panels to exclusively handle insurrection and the special counsels into Kim Keon-hee and the Marine's case. The initially contentious "National Assembly recommendation" clause was left out. The Democratic Party stressed that it focused on blocking constitutional controversy and providing legislative support to swiftly advance trials related to insurrection.
The Democratic Party's special committee for comprehensive response to the three special counsels submitted the bill to the National Assembly's bill office that afternoon, saying, "We must establish dedicated panels for former President Yoon Suk-yeol's alleged insurrection, the special counsel into first lady Kim Keon-hee, and the Marine special counsel to quickly resolve the public's doubts."
The bill would create dedicated three-judge panels at the Seoul Central District Court and the Seoul High Court, and, as with the Public Official Election Act, set deadlines requiring verdicts within six months at first instance and within three months at the appellate level (second instance) and at the Supreme Court. Candidates for the dedicated panels would be selected by a nine-member recommendation committee composed of the Ministry of Justice (1), the courts (4), and the Korean Bar Association (4).
The "clause allowing the National Assembly to recommend judges to a special panel," which had been included in the "special bill on follow-up measures to the Dec. 3 martial law declaration and protection of whistleblowers" (insurrection special bill) introduced by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Chan-dae in Jul., was deleted. After numerous criticisms—centered on the People Power Party and the legal community—that the recommendation committee could create a bench biased toward a particular political force, the contentious clause was removed. However, the structure of assigning judges to the insurrection-dedicated panel through an external body rather than the courts' internal system was effectively maintained.
Special committee Chairperson Jeon Hyun-hee said, "The bill introduced today focuses on completely blocking potential unconstitutionality that has been the subject of controversy," adding, "There was a point that giving the National Assembly the authority to recommend the composition of judges violates the separation of powers. While there is no constitutional flaw in the National Assembly recommending judges because trials are conducted by judges as prescribed by law, we accepted the argument and excluded the National Assembly from recommending judges." She went on to say, "This plan fully conforms to the constitutional provision that 'the organization of the courts shall be determined by law.'"
The amendment also includes provisions that preclude mitigation based on extenuating circumstances for insurrection and treason offenses and exclude those with final convictions from pardon and reinstatement. It would also require all three judges' opinions to be recorded in the judgment, and, in principle, allow recording and filming of the trial process. In addition, during the investigation stage, warrants would be handled exclusively by the warrant-assigning judge at the Seoul Central District Court.
However, the Democratic Party held off on adopting it as the party line. Floor spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung said, "It is not the party line yet," taking a cautious stance.
The Seoul Central District Court the same day said it would support expedited proceedings by assigning one additional judge to the insurrection case panel, but the Democratic Party said this was insufficient. Chairperson Jeon said, "It still falls short of the request to create a fair dedicated panel."