9 New Supreme Court Justice Nominees... Jo Han-chang, Park Young-jae, Noh Kyung-pil, Yoon Kang-yeol, etc. (Comprehensive)

The pool of candidates to succeed Supreme Court Justices Kim Seonsu, Lee Dongwon, and Noh Jeonghee, who will retire on August 1, has been narrowed down to three times the number of available positions.

Supreme Court. Photo by Asia Economy DB

On the afternoon of the 13th, the Supreme Court Justice Candidate Recommendation Committee concluded a meeting and recommended 9 candidates out of a total of 55 to Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae.

Chief Justice Cho plans to disclose their major rulings and past work, gather opinions from inside and outside the judiciary by the 19th, and then select 3 candidates to recommend for appointment to President Yoon Seok-yeol.

Chairman Lee Gwang-hyung of the recommendation committee stated, "We have strived to recommend candidates who possess not only high legal expertise but also insight and inclusiveness to understand societal changes, a firm commitment to protecting socially vulnerable and minority groups, and morality that meets the public’s expectations."

All nine candidates are either current judges or former judges turned lawyers, with three female candidates among them.

The recommended candidates are Cho Han-chang (59, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 18), lawyer at Law Firm Dooul; Park Young-jae (55, class 22), presiding judge at Seoul High Court; Noh Kyung-pil (59, class 23), presiding judge at Suwon High Court; Yoon Kang-yeol (58, class 23), presiding judge at Seoul High Court; Yoon Seung-eun (56, class 23), presiding judge at Seoul High Court; Ma Yong-joo (54, class 23), presiding judge at Seoul High Court; Oh Young-jun (54, class 23), presiding judge at Seoul High Court; Park Soon-young (57, class 25), judge at Seoul High Court; and Lee Sook-yeon (55, class 26), high court judge at the Patent Court.

Lawyer Cho Han-chang graduated from Sangmun High School and Seoul National University Law School, beginning his legal career in 1992 as a judge at Busan District Court East Branch. He has served as a Supreme Court judicial research officer, acting chief presiding judge at Seoul Administrative Court, and worked in the administrative and tax divisions of Seoul High Court. Since 2021, he has been the lead lawyer at Law Firm Dooul.

Presiding Judge Park Young-jae graduated from Baejeong High School and Seoul National University Law School, starting his judicial career in 1996 at Seoul District Court East Branch. He has served at Busan High Court and Seoul High Court, worked as a professor at the Judicial Research and Training Institute in 2009, and has extensive judicial administrative experience, including personnel officer and planning director at the Court Administration Office, and deputy director during former Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo’s tenure.

Presiding Judge Noh Kyung-pil graduated from Gwangju High School and Seoul National University Law School, appointed as a judge at Seoul District Court in 1997. He worked for five years as a Supreme Court judicial research officer handling constitutional and administrative cases and served as senior presiding judge at Suwon High Court, earning a reputation for expertise in judicial work.

Presiding Judge Yoon Kang-yeol graduated from Chosun University Affiliated High School and Korea University Law School, starting as a judge at Seoul Criminal District Court in 1994. He has held positions such as personnel officer at the Court Administration Office and Supreme Court judicial research officer. In 2022, he presided over the second trial of the illegal nursing benefit claim case involving President Yoon’s mother-in-law, Choi Eun-soon, and acquitted her. In 2017, he was the first to recognize state liability for overcrowding in correctional facilities.

Presiding Judge Yoon Seung-eun graduated from Eunkwang Girls' High School and Seoul National University Law School, beginning her judicial career in 1994 at Daejeon District Court. In 2005, she became the first woman to serve as a deliberation officer at the Court Administration Office and has worked in the sexual violence division at Seoul Central District Court, labor and election divisions at Seoul High Court, and as director of the Court Library.

Presiding Judge Ma Yong-joo graduated from Nakdong High School and Seoul National University Law School, starting as a judge at Seoul District Court in 1997. He served as senior and chief judicial research officer at the Supreme Court and is regarded as a leading elite judge within the judiciary. He has also served as personnel review officer and ethics auditor at the Court Administration Office.

Presiding Judge Oh Young-jun graduated from Seoul High School and Seoul National University Law School, appointed as a judge at Seoul Civil District Court in 1994. He worked as a Supreme Court judicial research officer from 2006 to 2010 and 2012 to 2014, and served as senior and chief judicial research officer from 2019 to last year, earning a reputation for outstanding judicial ability.

Judge Park Soon-young graduated from Eunkwang Girls' High School and Korea University Law School, appointed as a judge at Daejeon District Court in 1996. She has served at Seoul Administrative Court and as a Supreme Court judicial research officer. She has worked in the labor division at Seoul High Court and is recognized as a labor law expert, having participated in the Supreme Court Labor Law Practical Research Group.

Judge Lee Sook-yeon graduated from Yeouido Girls' High School and Pohang University of Science and Technology with a degree in Industrial Engineering, appointed as a judge at Seoul District Court West Branch in 1997. She has worked in the planning and coordination office and as an information technology deliberation officer at the Court Administration Office. Currently, she serves as chair of the Supreme Court’s Artificial Intelligence Research Group and is a concurrent professor in the Department of Computer Science at KAIST, known for her expertise in information and communication technology and intellectual property rights.

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