President Yoon Approves Appointment of New Supreme Court Justice Lee Suk-yeon

by Mun Jewon

Published 06 Aug.2024 13:34(KST)

Justice Lee Suk-yeon, Newly Appointed Supreme Court Justice [Image Source=Yonhap News]

President Yoon Suk-yeol approved the appointment of new Supreme Court Justice Lee Suk-yeon on the 6th, the presidential office announced that day.

Earlier, the National Assembly held a plenary session the previous afternoon and passed the appointment consent bill for Justice Lee with 206 votes in favor, 58 against, and 7 abstentions out of 271 members present.

Supreme Court justices are appointed only after the National Assembly's Special Committee on Personnel Hearings adopts a review report on the appointment consent bill and the plenary session passes the bill with a majority of the total members present and a majority of those voting.

The review report on the appointment consent bill for Justice Lee included both reasons for qualification and disqualification. Among the qualifications was her deep interest in improving women's rights, while controversies such as the so-called "Dad's Chance" issue arising from her child's unlisted stock transactions were included as disqualifications.

Along with Justice Lee, nominees No Kyung-pil and Park Young-jae had their personnel hearing review reports adopted on the 26th of last month, were voted on in the plenary session on the 1st of this month, and inaugurated on the 2nd.

With the appointment of these three candidates, the Supreme Court has completed its 13-justice bench under Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae. The number of female justices is now three, including Justice Lee, Justice Oh Kyung-mi, and Justice Shin Sook-hee.