61-year-old former lawmaker to become oldest legal trainee

Chung Chin-sup

A 61-year-old former lawmaker will become the oldest trainee to join the training required for those who passed the state-run bar exam after the military government in the 1980s disqualified him from it.

Chung Chin-sup, once a two-term lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, will begin a two-year training course at the Judicial Research and Training Institute in March to be a legal practitioner. He had ambitions of becoming an attorney dating back to his college years. His motivation came from a strong desire to resist the autocratic leadership of the two ex-Army generals, late Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan.

“It would be meaningless to point out and talk about injustice and faults of the military governments in the past,” Chung said. “I will (instead) focus on contributing to society by studying hard with the spirit of righteousness that I had against those strongmen.”

Born in 1952, Chung grew up in Gwangju, Gyeoggi Province. He entered Seoul National University, one of the country’s all-time best schools, in 1972 when the country was under the iron-fist rule of Park.

Chung was expelled from his college in 1975 for protesting against the military dictator’s plan to prolong his one-man rule. The school subsequently withdrew its decision allowing him to return in 1980, the year when Chun seized power following assassination of Park in October 1979.

In 1981, he passed the first two steps, including writing test, of the Korean bar exam that is comprised of three parts. The third step, a face-to-face interview with legal professionals such as judges and prosecutors, was considered nominal once the applicants pass the previous parts.

But interviewers disqualified Chung. They said his loyalty to the country and sense of duty is “under serious doubt” by pointing out the fact that he protested against the decision.

Chung took the interview the following year, as the bar exam regulation states an applicant can apply for it up to two times. He, however, failed again.

In 2007, a special committee that was formed to correct wrongdoings of the military dictatorships appealed to the liberal government. It claimed the unsuccessful bar exam applicants in the 1980s who failed the interview for protesting against Chun should be given permission to qualify.

The liberal government accepted the appeal in 2008 when Chung began his second term as a lawmaker.

He said he decided to join the training at the Judicial Research and Training Institute this year, as the state-run bar exam will be scrapped and replaced with law school exams by 2017. The law schools run their test individually.

“There are too many changes in the law during the past decades, and now I have to study really hard so as not to fall behind young fellows,” Chung said. <The Korea Times/Yi Whan-woo>