Yoon Nominates Cho Hee-dae as New Chief Justice... "The Right Person to Restore Judicial Trust" (Update)

27 Years as a Judge... "Principled Jurist as Supreme Court Justice"
Short Term Variable... "Public Harm Concerns" Behind Accelerated Appointment

President Yoon Suk-yeol nominated former Supreme Court Justice Cho Hee-dae as the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on the 8th. This comes 33 days after the appointment consent bill for former nominee Lee Gyun-yong was rejected in the National Assembly, led by the opposition party.

On the same day, Kim Dae-gi, Chief of Staff to the President, held a briefing at the Yongsan Presidential Office and announced the new nominee for Chief Justice. Former Justice Cho served as a Supreme Court judicial researcher and chief judge of the Daegu District Court, and was appointed as a Supreme Court Justice in 2014 during the Park Geun-hye administration. He has been evaluated as having expressed conservative views in politically sensitive cases.

President Yoon Suk-yeol nominated former Supreme Court Justice Cho Hee-dae (photo) as the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on the 8th.

Chief of Staff Kim also explained the background of the appointment, saying, "The nominee served as a judge in courts across the country for 27 years and served as a Supreme Court Justice from 2014 to 2020. He has devoted his life to ensuring the people's right to a fair trial as a judge." He added, "He is well known as a principled jurist as a Supreme Court Justice. He possesses fair judgment grounded in law and principles and has taken the lead in protecting the rights of socially vulnerable groups and minorities. As a distinguished professor at Sungkyunkwan University School of Law, he has also dedicated himself to research and nurturing future legal scholars. We judged him to be the right person to lead the judiciary based on principles, justice, and common sense, and to swiftly restore public trust in the judiciary."

However, his short term is a concern. If former Justice Cho is finally appointed, he will serve as the head of the judiciary for three and a half years instead of the full six-year term, due to the Supreme Court Chief Justice's retirement age regulation of 70. Regarding this, Chief of Staff Kim said, "In selecting a successor, we considered that the appointment should not be delayed to avoid a prolonged vacancy in the Chief Justice position, and we judged that this nominee would not face issues even from the opposition party. Therefore, it was decided that he would serve about four years, but there have been about three cases in the past where appointees did not complete their full terms." When asked why the nomination of the new Chief Justice candidate was faster than expected, he replied, "The longer the vacancy in the Chief Justice position lasts, the more the public suffers."

Meanwhile, the Chief Justice is appointed by the President after the National Assembly holds a confirmation hearing and the appointment consent bill is passed in the plenary session. The approval requires a majority of the total members present and a majority of the members present to vote in favor.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.