South Korea's Supreme Court Paid Illegal Monthly Incentives to Justices, Audit Finds

SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court was found to have paid about 2 million won (US$1,450) each in extra incentives to its justices each month without legal grounds, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said Monday.

According to the results of a regular audit into the top court, an average of 2 million won was paid to 12 justices every month between 2022 and April 2024, separately from 5.12 million won paid to each of them in special duty allowances.

The chief of the National Court Administration was paid 3 million won each month during the same period.

The BAI said the payment of such regular incentives without a legal basis is prohibited.

Between May 2024 and September 2025, different amounts of money were paid, which makes it look like it is not a regular incentive, but the annual totals paid to each justice remained similar in 2024, according to the auditor.

The total amount of such incentives reached about 1.3 billion won.

The National Court Administration explained to the BAI that the incentives were paid to acknowledge the hard work of justices and judicial researchers involved in court hearings.

Separately, members of the Supreme Court chief justice's security detail were paid between 1.5 million won and 2 million won. But the chief justice himself received no such incentives.

The BAI also found other cases of improper spending by the top court.

The court paid a computer maintenance firm 650 million won for upgrading the operating system of the court's computers, despite having previously signed a contract that such upgrades would be provided for free, arguing that the oral agreement was different from the contract.

In addition, the court failed to assess the exact number of computers and other devices necessary and ended up buying more than what it needed, just to use up the remaining budget. That left the court with a surplus of 6,131 computers, 2,983 printers and 559 scanners, the BAI said.