▲ Roh Kyung-pil, Minister of Court Administration
Roh Kyung-pil, Minister of Court Administration (Supreme Court Justice), addressed the Democratic Party of Korea's backlash against Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae's written nomination of Supreme Court justice candidates the previous day, stating, "(The Chief Justice) does not mean to start a fight."
Attending a full meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly today (the 19th), Minister Roh made the remark in response to a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Park Jie-won, who asked, "Is Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho completely ignoring the president and the National Assembly and trying to pick a fight?"
When asked whether simultaneously nominating the successors of former Supreme Court Justices Roh Tae-ak and Lee Heung-goo—whose replacements have been delayed for over half a year—using a "1+1 method" amounted to "insertion-style judicial politics," he replied, "I do not think judicial politics was at play."
In response to a follow-up question asking, "Can you just ignore the president and the National Assembly like this?" he answered, "Until just before, there were calls to swiftly nominate..."
This appeared to reference how the ruling party, centered around the ruling bloc, had strongly taken issue with the delayed nomination of Supreme Court justices.
The previous day, Chief Justice Cho nominated Chief Judge Son Bong-gi of the Daegu District Court and Chief Judge Kim Sung-soo of the Seoul High Court to President Lee Jae-myung as the successors to former Supreme Court Justices Roh Tae-ak and Lee Heung-goo, respectively.
Breaking from the conventional practice in which the Chief Justice coordinates with the presidential office and visits the president for an "in-person nomination," the Chief Justice reportedly made the "written nomination" of the two candidates without sufficient coordination, which is expected to trigger considerable repercussions.
On his way to work today, Chief Justice Cho did not respond to questions from reporters asking about the reasons behind the written nomination.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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