Candidates to succeed Supreme Court Justice Lee Heung-gu (63, Judicial Research and Training Institute 22nd class), who is set to retire in September, will be narrowed down to three or four early next month.

With the position of Supreme Court Justice Noh Tae-ak (64, 16th class), who stepped down in March, remaining vacant for over four months, attention is focused on whether the selection process for Justice Lee's successor will break the deadlock in the first Supreme Court justice appointment under the Lee Jae-myung administration.

The Supreme Court Justice Recommendation Committee is scheduled to hold a meeting on August 4 to recommend at least three candidates from the 28 nominees for Justice Lee's successor to Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae.

Previously, the Supreme Court disclosed the list of 28 individuals (27 judges and one professor) who consented to the review by the Recommendation Committee out of 87 people recommended from both inside and outside the judiciary, and collected opinions regarding them.

Once the Recommendation Committee recommends at least three candidates based on the collected opinions, Chief Justice Cho will officially nominate one of them to President Lee Jae-myung for appointment.

The committee is chaired by Park Eun-jung, Professor Emeritus at Ewha Womans University Law School.

Ex-officio members include Supreme Court Justice Lee Heung-gu, Minister of Justice Jung Sung-ho, President of the Korean Bar Association Kim Jung-wook, President of the Korea Association of Law Professors Choi Bong-kyung, Chairman of the Korea Association of Law Schools Hong Dae-sik, and Minister of National Court Administration Noh Kyung-pil.

Among the non-ex-officio members, Park Eun-jung, Lee Soo-hyung (CEO of The Law Times), and Lee Hee-jung (Professor at Korea University Law School) were appointed as external members, while Judge Yoo Hyun-young of the Suwon District Court Yeoju Branch was appointed as the judicial member.

On the day before the report, Judge Yoo posted a message on Courtnet, the internal judicial network, asking judges and court staff to provide any relevant opinions before the committee meeting, stating that she would relay them to the committee.

The point of interest is whether Chief Justice Cho will nominate two candidates simultaneously—one to succeed Justice Lee and another to fill the vacancy left by Justice Noh, who retired in March.

The previous recommendation committee formed ahead of Justice Noh's retirement recommended four candidates on January 21, including Seoul High Court Judges Kim Min-ki and Park Soon-young, Daegu District Court Judge Son Bong-ki, and Seoul High Court Judge Yoon Sung-sik, but the Chief Justice has not made a nomination for six months.

This is due to the failure of the presidential office and the judiciary to narrow their differences regarding the final candidate.

Meanwhile, on July 14, Justice Noh Kyung-pil took office as the new Minister of National Court Administration and left his position on the bench.

Chief Justice Cho had previously refrained from appointing a successor after Justice Park Young-jae resigned from the post of Minister of National Court Administration in February this year to avoid vacancies on the bench. However, it appears he made the decision as the position could no longer be left vacant, given the need to communicate judicial legislation to the National Assembly in the second half of the year.

With the bench already facing vacancies, there are expectations that the presidential office and the judiciary will accelerate behind-the-scenes coordination to avoid further delays in trials, which could worsen if the selection process for Justice Lee's successor is not completed on time.
(Photo: Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)