Rep. Chun Jun-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea explains a proposed amendment to the Criminal Act, including the 'law distortion offense,' during a plenary session of the National Assembly in February. [Yonhap News]

A criminal code amendment bill that punishes the distortion of law by judges, prosecutors, and other legal professionals was processed by the ruling party-led National Assembly on the 26th.

The National Assembly passed the so-called "law distortion offense" bill, one of the Democratic Party's three judicial reform bills, at its plenary session that day.

The bill's core provision stipulates that judges and prosecutors involved in criminal cases who distort the law during trials or investigations with the intent to illegally provide benefits to others or harm their rights and interests shall be punished by imprisonment for up to 10 years and disqualification from public office for up to 10 years.

The bill defines "law distortion" as "applying the law despite knowing that the conditions for its application are not met, or intentionally influencing the outcome of a trial or investigation by not applying the law that should have been applied, despite knowing it should be applied."

However, discretionary judgments made within a reasonable scope of legal interpretation are exempted.

Additionally, the bill also defines the following as acts of law distortion: ▲ destroying, concealing, forging, or altering evidence related to a case, or using forged or altered evidence while knowing it is such ▲ illegally collecting evidence through methods such as assault, intimidation, or deception, or admitting guilt for a crime while knowing that no lawful evidence exists.

Earlier, the Democratic Party significantly amended the bill due to concerns both within and outside the party that the abstract nature of the original bill, as passed by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, could lead to constitutional challenges if processed in its original form.

The amendment also includes an expansion of the scope of espionage charges to include the leakage of state secrets and advanced national technologies, changing the target from 'enemy states' to 'foreign countries or organizations equivalent thereto'.

A new provision was added to punish those who "seek, collect, leak, transmit, or mediate state secrets, or aid and abet such acts, under the direction or instigation of a foreign country or equivalent organization, for the benefit of such entities." Such individuals shall be punished by fixed-term imprisonment of three years or more.

The People Power Party opposed the law distortion offense bill, calling it an "evil law" that undermines the judicial system, and initiated a filibuster (a tactic to obstruct legislative proceedings through unlimited debate) the previous day.

On this day, the pro-government parties, including the Democratic Party, voted to end the filibuster 24 hours after its commencement and then passed the bill.