President Lee Asks "How Have You Been?"... Chief Justice Cho Responds Only with Silent Smile

[Anchor]

With no breakthrough in sight over recommending a successor for the Supreme Court justice post, President Lee Jae-myung briefly exchanged greetings with Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae ahead of his policy address. President Lee asked how he had been, but Chief Justice Cho remained silent.

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.

[Reporter]

When Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae arrived at the main building of the National Assembly, where People Power Party lawmakers were staging a picket protest, cheers of encouragement erupted.

["Stay strong, Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae."]

Eight minutes later, when President Lee Jae-myung passed by, protests ensued.

["Stop intimidating the judiciary and pushing for impeachment to overturn trials!"]

President Lee bowed to the People Power Party lawmakers before moving to the reception room for pre-meeting pleasantries.

He shook hands one after another with the ruling and opposition party leaders waiting for him,

[President Lee Jae-myung: "Nice to see you. I see you often on TV."]

and also briefly asked Chief Justice Cho how he was doing.

[President Lee Jae-myung: "Chief Justice, how have you been? Nice to see you."]

Chief Justice Cho merely smiled without saying much.

This was the first time the two came face-to-face since September 22, when Chief Justice Cho rejected the presidential office's request to re-nominate a Supreme Court justice candidate.

Even after President Lee finished his policy speech and was exiting, Chief Justice Cho remained seated, looking straight ahead.

The People Power Party took issue with President Lee's greeting and sharpened its criticism.

[Jeong Jeom-sik / Floor Leader, People Power Party: "The Democratic Party, which he manipulates from behind the scenes, is shaking the independence of the judiciary through talk of impeachment and parliamentary investigations. How could he possibly say 'How have you been?' to his face?"]

The Democratic Party plans to report a request for a parliamentary investigation into Chief Justice Cho at a plenary session in two days.

With wide differences between the ruling and opposition parties regarding both the budget bill and the parliamentary investigation, the year-end National Assembly session is also expected to face rough waters.

(Video: Oh Young-woo, Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing: Jeon Min-gyu)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.