Seoul: A senior judicial official stated on Wednesday that the judiciary's opinions should be incorporated into the deliberations of the controversial judicial reform bills being promoted by the ruling Democratic Party (DP).

According to Yonhap News Agency, Park Young-jae, the head of the National Court Administration, emphasized this point during a nationwide meeting of chief judges. This meeting was convened in response to three DP-led bills that have faced strong opposition from the judiciary.

The reform bills propose to establish a new crime called "legal distortion," permit constitutional appeals for court cases, and increase the number of Supreme Court justices from 14 to 26. Park, who is also a Supreme Court justice, remarked on the necessity of including the judiciary's perspective, as they are directly involved in handling trials, during the bills' deliberation process.

The assembly aimed to discuss how the judiciary should respond to these bills, which are awaiting a parliamentary vote. The DP plans to introduce the "legal distortion" offense bill in a plenary session on Wednesday.

The proposed bill stipulates that judges or prosecutors could face up to 10 years in prison if they intentionally misapply legislation, destroy, conceal, or tamper with evidence, or acknowledge criminal acts without evidence. The judiciary has expressed opposition, arguing that the bill's subjective nature could threaten its independence if enacted.