Supreme Court Re-Trials

This article from Donga Ilbo reports that the Supreme Court of Korea has selected 224 cases to be re-tried. All of the cases are from the Park/Chun era when the Court often ruled against innocent citizens on grounds of national security. I can certainly understand how setting the record straight would provide a healing effect for the families of those that were wrongly convicted. It would also soothe the painful memories of living under martial law.

But what effect does this have on the legitimacy of the Supreme Court? Many of these cases are less than 20 years old. If the court readily admits that it has been nothing but a lackey for the executive, how can it expect the public to regard it as an independent judicial body?