[Anchor]

Hello, everyone. Twenty-five days after President Lee Jae-myung requested the re-nomination of a Supreme Court justice, Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae officially announced his stance that he cannot comply. He explained that he could find "no constitutional basis or grounds" to justify a re-nomination request. The unprecedented conflict between the president and the chief justice surrounding Supreme Court nominations is now escalating into a direct clash.

For our first story, here is legal affairs reporter Im Chanjong.

[Reporter]

Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae released an official statement today (September 22) stating that he cannot comply with President Lee Jae-myung's request to re-nominate a Supreme Court justice.

This comes 25 days after President Lee requested the re-nomination.

Chief Justice Cho pointed out that under the law, acts of state by the president must be executed through documents countersigned by the prime minister and relevant cabinet members, yet the document regarding the re-nomination request failed to state specific reasons and constitutional grounds for the re-nomination.

He also stated, "Since no other specific constitutional basis or grounds can be found to justify the re-nomination request, I cannot comply with the request."

[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 Min-ki as a successor to former Supreme Court Justice Roh Tae-ak, who retired in March.

In the meantime, the retirement timing for former Supreme Court Justice Lee Heung-gu approached, and last month on August 18, Chief Justice Cho nominated Senior Judge Sohn Bong-ki as the successor to former Justice Roh and Senior Judge Kim Sung-soo as the successor to former Justice Lee, respectively.

In response, President Lee's side proceeded with the appointment procedures for Senior Judge Kim, with whom prior agreement had been reached, but refused to appoint Senior Judge Sohn—whose nomination lacked prior agreement—arguing that procedural completeness had not been sufficiently met, and requested a fresh nomination for that position.

However, with Chief Justice Cho stating today that he cannot comply with the re-nomination request, the ball has effectively been passed back to the president's side.

Nevertheless, because it is virtually unlikely that President Lee will resume the appointment procedure for Senior Judge Sohn Bong-ki, whom Chief Justice Cho previously nominated, and because a Supreme Court justice cannot be appointed without the chief justice's nomination, there are even forecasts that the vacancy in the Supreme Court justice position could persist until Chief Justice Cho's scheduled retirement in June next year.

(Video reporting: Kim Hangyul, Video editing: Park Sun-su)