[Anchor]
Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae has rejected President Lee Jae-myung's request to re-nominate a Supreme Court justice. Explaining that he could find "no constitutional grounds or reasons" to justify a re-nomination request, the prolonged vacancy crisis in the Supreme Court appears likely to deepen.
Legal affairs specialist reporter Im Chanjong has the report.
[Reporter]
Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae released a statement today (the 22nd) announcing that he cannot comply with President Lee Jae-myung's request for a re-nomination of a Supreme Court justice.
This comes 25 days after President Lee requested the re-nomination.
Chief Justice Cho pointed out that under constitutional law, presidential acts of state must be documented with the countersignature of the Prime Minister and relevant cabinet ministers, yet the document regarding the re-nomination request failed to state specific reasons and constitutional grounds for requesting a re-nomination.
He also stated, "Since no other specific constitutional grounds and reasons can be found to justify the request for re-nomination, I cannot comply with it."
[Cho Hee-dae / Chief Justice (Leaving work today): (Could you say a word?) ......]
Chief Justice Cho has been at odds with the presidential office, which demanded the nomination of Senior Judge Kim Mingi as the successor to former Supreme Court Justice Noh Tae-ak, who retired last March.
In the meantime, the retirement timing for former Supreme Court Justice Lee Heung-goo approached, and Chief Justice Cho nominated Senior Judge Son Bong-ki as the successor to former Justice Noh and Senior Judge Kim Sung-soo as the successor to former Justice Lee on the 18th of last month.
In response, President Lee's side proceeded with the appointment procedures for Senior Judge Kim, on whom prior agreement had been reached, but refused to appoint Senior Judge Son—for whom no prior agreement was made—citing insufficient procedural completeness, and requested a new nomination for that single position.
However, with Chief Justice Cho expressing his position today that he cannot comply with the re-nomination request, the ball has effectively been passed back to the presidential side.
Nevertheless, because there is almost no possibility that President Lee Jae-myung will resume the appointment procedure for Senior Judge Son Bong-ki—whom Chief Justice Cho previously nominated—and because Supreme Court justices cannot be appointed without the Chief Justice's nomination, projections are even emerging that the Supreme Court justice vacancy crisis could persist until Chief Justice Cho's scheduled retirement in June of next year.
(Video reporting: Kim Hangyeol, Video editing: Park Sun-su)
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