Daejeon High Court Chief Judge Park Jong-hoon and Patent Court Chief Judge Jin Seong-cheol... Supreme Court, Senior Judicial Appointments

First Regular Personnel Appointment After Cho Hee-dae's Inauguration as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Park Jong-hoon, Chief Judge of the Busan High Court (19th Judicial Research and Training Institute class), was appointed as the new Chief Judge of the Daejeon High Court, and Jin Sung-chul, Chief Judge of the Daegu High Court (19th class), was appointed as the new Chief Judge of the Patent Court.

On the 26th, the Supreme Court announced personnel changes including appointments of court chiefs, chief judges of high courts, and judges of high courts. This is the first senior judicial personnel appointment since Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae took office. Appointments and transfers of court chiefs and senior chief judges will take effect from the 5th of next month, while appointments and transfers of high court chief judges and judges will take effect from the 19th of next month.

Park Jong-hoon, Chief Judge of Daejeon High Court

Park, the new Chief Judge of the Daejeon High Court (age 60), was commissioned as a judge at the Suwon District Court in 1993. Since then, he has served at the Seoul District Court, as head of the Tongyeong branch of the Changwon District Court, as chief judge of the Busan High Court, as senior chief judge of the Busan District Court, and as senior chief judge of the Busan High Court. He is a seasoned judge well-versed in civil, criminal, and administrative trials, having handled various judicial duties as a presiding judge at courts of all levels. In 2019, while serving as the administrative presiding judge of the Busan High Court, he gained attention for a ruling that even if a new illness occurs due to side effects of medication or treatment during the healing process of an occupational injury, it should still be regarded as an occupational injury.

Jin Seong-cheol, Chief Judge of the Patent Court

Jin, the new Chief Judge of the Patent Court (age 59), was commissioned as a judge at the Daegu District Court in 1993. He has served at the Daegu High Court, as a judicial research judge at the Supreme Court, as chief judge of the Daegu District Court, as head of the Family Division of the Daegu District Court, as chief judge of the Busan High Court, and as senior chief judge of the Daegu High Court. Last year, while serving as the presiding judge of the criminal division of the Daegu High Court, he made a ruling that even if a vehicle was temporarily stopped or parked during operation, assault against the driver falls under "situations that may threaten safety," thus qualifying for aggravated punishment under specific crimes.

This regular personnel appointment, the first since Chief Justice Cho took office, did not apply the court chief candidate recommendation system. The court chief candidate recommendation system is a system where frontline judges recommend fellow judges as candidates for court chief, introduced during former Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo’s tenure. A Supreme Court official stated, "Considering the tight schedule this year, the court chief candidate recommendation system was not implemented. Instead, judges with long-term trial experience, excellent character, extensive career, and judicial competence who are highly respected within the court were appointed as court chiefs." The official added, "Various opinions have been raised inside and outside the court regarding the court chief candidate recommendation system. We plan to conduct a thorough performance analysis and gather sufficient opinions from court members to prepare reasonable improvement measures in the future."

In this regular personnel appointment, chief judges of district courts were appointed from among chief judges of 13 district courts, family courts, administrative courts, and rehabilitation courts. Among them, female judges were appointed as court chiefs of four courts: Seoul Western District Court, Incheon District Court, Suwon Family Court, and Daejeon Family Court. Kim Guk-hyun, chief judge of the Changwon District Court (24th class), was appointed as Chief Judge of the Seoul Administrative Court; Park Beom-seok, senior chief judge of the Civil Division 1 at the Seoul Central District Court (26th class), as Chief Judge of the Seoul Eastern District Court; Jeong Gye-seon, chief judge of the Seoul Southern District Court (27th class), as Chief Judge of the Seoul Western District Court; and Kim Gwi-ok, chief judge of the Uijeongbu District Court (24th class), as Chief Judge of the Incheon District Court. With this, all 18 district courts, 8 family courts, the Seoul Administrative Court, and 3 rehabilitation courts have chief judges appointed from among district court chief judges.

Additionally, two incumbent court chiefs who were high court chief judges returned to high court benches. This is intended to dispel the perception that appointment as a court chief is a "promotion" and to reaffirm that the essence of the judiciary is "trial" by having court chiefs return to the bench and serve until retirement. Kim Yong-seok, Chief Judge of the Patent Court (16th class), and Park Young-jae, Deputy Director of the Court Administration Office (22nd class), completed their terms as court chiefs and were assigned to the Seoul High Court. Furthermore, 10 district court chief judges appointed as court chiefs in the 2022 regular personnel appointments also returned to district court benches. Since 2012, a total of 77 court chiefs have returned to high court benches, indicating that the court chief rotation system has been stably established.

For high court judges, a total of 16 judges with considerable legal experience were newly appointed after deliberation by the Judicial Personnel Committee. Based on the Judicial Research and Training Institute class, 5 judges (1 from the 26th class, 1 from the 27th class, and 3 from the 30th class) were assigned to the Seoul High Court, and 2 judges (1 from the 31st class and 1 from the 33rd class) were assigned to the Suwon High Court. However, to facilitate the swift establishment of the dual judicial personnel system in regional high courts, a total of 9 judges, including those from the 37th and 38th classes, were newly appointed to regional high courts.

A Supreme Court official explained, "For high court judges in the Seoul metropolitan area high courts, where the dual judicial personnel system is nearing completion, rotation is conducted only to the minimum extent necessary to fill vacancies of presiding judges in regional high courts. Judges with sufficient experience as district court chief judges were newly appointed as high court judges."

Meanwhile, to support the stable launch of the next-generation electronic litigation system and the criminal electronic litigation system, the Supreme Court decided to integrate information-related organizations within the Court Administration Office into the "Judicial Informatization Office." Subsequently, the Chief of the Judicial Informatization Office, a high court judge, and the Judicial Informatization Planning Officer, a judge, will be appointed.

In addition, to strengthen judicial administrative support functions and establish a rational and fair judicial personnel system, the number of Judicial Support Officers and Personnel Officers will be increased.

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