South Korea's alleged election fraud reaches the UN tribunal. 

The plaintiffs, who filed a lawsuit to nullify the election results of the recent June 3 presidential election, claiming it was fraudulent, have officially requested intervention from the United Nations after the judiciary exceeded the legal deadline of 180 days for processing election lawsuits.

On the 20th, the plaintiff group, consisting of 11,040 individuals (with Wi Geum-sook as the representative plaintiff), their legal counsel (lawyers Kwon Oh-yong, Do Tae-woo, Park Ju-hyun, and Yoon Yong-jin), and the Lawyers Association for Freedom, announced that they sent a letter to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) requesting urgent action, stating that "the judicial system of the Republic of Korea has seriously collapsed."

In their letter, the plaintiffs explained the background of sending it, stating, "The entire judicial process of South Korean elections has lost the timeliness, independence, and effectiveness required by the Constitution, and the judiciary can no longer perform its substantive judicial function for election disputes."

They particularly lamented, "The legal deadline of 180 days has been effectively nullified due to the prolonged pendency of election lawsuits, and a vacuum of judicial remedy is repeatedly occurring. This is not merely an issue of individual cases but a structural collapse of the judiciary that erodes the very democratic legitimacy through elections."

The UN confirmed that "this falls within the mandate of the Special Rapporteur" and notified the Korean side on the 15th that the case had been duly registered. The UN OHCHR Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers closely examines the extent of judicial violations in each country based on the independence of judges and lawyers.

This submission of an urgent letter reflects the perception that it is difficult to resolve the issue of the collapse of the election judicial system within South Korea, and it is being evaluated as a significant measure to inform the international community that it has transformed into an international issue of serious infringement of judicial independence and the right to a fair trial under international human rights norms.

The plaintiffs stated, "The judiciary, which should adjudicate election disputes, the core of democracy, has lost its function, which means the collapse of the democratic constitutional order itself," and expressed their expectation that "the UN Special Rapporteur on Judicial Independence will gravely review the matter and initiate international-level issues and urgent recommendations to the Korean government."

It is known that the UN undergoes a special procedure for the most serious and urgent received cases. The Special Rapporteur can directly review the submitted materials and then officially lodge a complaint or issue urgent recommendations.

By Heo Gyeom, Reporter