Chun Dae-yup, head of the National Court Administration, said regarding judicial reform, "I want to once again stress that you listen to what members of the judiciary have to say."
Chun, who has held the post of head of the National Court Administration for two years since Jan. 15, 2024, said in a farewell address on the 15th, "Since I took office on Jan. 15, 2024, the past two years have been a truly eventful period for the judiciary and for me personally," adding, "In 2025, based on those achievements, we prepared various institutional improvements to dramatically enhance citizens' access to justice, but it is deeply regrettable that those efforts were scrapped due to the illegal martial law emergency that broke out at the end of 2024."
Regarding the Dec. 3 martial law, Chun said, "Thanks to the steadfast constitutionalism of citizens raised under the 1987 constitutional system won through a citizens' revolution after overcoming a long history of dictatorship, and cooperation in the National Assembly, the martial law situation was resolved early," adding, "As a result, judicial independence and judicial authority were fully preserved, and the judiciary became indebted to citizens once again."
Chun prefaced his remarks by saying that, as for the judicial handling of illegal acts related to martial law, "In the end it can only be done through trials, so the judiciary has limits on its latitude, in that it cannot make a legal assessment before a trial," but noted that, as head of the National Court Administration, he had pointed out the unconstitutionality of the martial law, reflecting the judiciary's mainstream view. He said there was also an assessment that this criticism "helped to sort out the conflicts and confusion that persisted until the Constitutional Court's ruling of unconstitutionality."
However, Chun said that after the launch of the new government, he experienced "the pain of the judiciary becoming a target of reform rather than a partner," and reflected that there had been insufficient preparation to pursue judicial reform under mutual respect with the National Assembly and the government. He then apologized to those who, because of that, came to distrust the judiciary.
He said, "The separation of powers and judicial independence, as the counterweight supporting democracy and the rule of law under the 1987 constitutional system, are core constitutional values," adding that the judiciary had no choice but to keep calling for participation as a partner in reform. He also stressed that judicial reform that excludes the judiciary is rare and that there is a high possibility that access to justice will shrink if voices from the field are excluded.
Chun cited as urgent improvements the search and seizure system, the detention system, the discovery system, the citizen participation jury trial system, specialization of courts including a labor court, full disclosure of written judgments, measures to make fact-finding trials more thorough and faster, and, based on that, improvements to the appellate structure. He said judicial reform should not expand "opportunities for endless litigation," but should meet citizens' expectations of resolving disputes swiftly in principle with a single trial at the fact-finding stage.
Chun said, "I sincerely hope the newly formed National Court Administration can serve as a primer for such judicial reform through close communication with the National Assembly and others," and he thanked the members of the National Court Administration.
Chief Justice Jo Hee-de appointed Supreme Court Justice Park Young-jae as head of the National Court Administration on the 13th to succeed Chun. Park takes office on the 16th, and Chun will return to trial work as a Supreme Court justice.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea's "Task force for normalizing judicial administration (TF)" is pushing to abolish the National Court Administration and to establish a Judicial Administration Committee as a replacement body, under the stated aim of dispersing the chief justice's powers and strengthening democratic control over judicial administration.