Supreme Court Gets Five New Nominees

The head of the Ulsan Distirct Court Kim Neung-whan (17th Bar Examination), the head of the Seoul Western District Court Park Il-hwan (15th), the chair of the Seoul High Public Prosecutors Office An Dae-hee (17th), the chair of Seoul District Court Lee Hong-hoon (14th), and the head of the Gwangju District Court Jeon Su-an (18th) were nominated as new supreme court justices yesterday.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Lee Yong-hoon visited Cheong Wa Dae on June 7 and had luncheon with President Roh Moo-hyun, and handed in the nominations to the president appointing the aforementioned five as new Supreme Court justices.

It is predicted that President Roh will accept the nomination by Chief Justice Lee and request confirmation to the National Assembly.

The Supreme Court stated, “The appointment procedures have been held since October last year for strict judgment and evaluation. We went through rigorous inspections and wide ranged opinion collecting based on such standards as military service, morality, and property accumulation procedures on tens of candidates.”

The Supreme Court added that it considered recommending a candidate with scholarly backgrounds at first, but decided otherwise in the end after examining many elements, and that a number of lawmen out of power declined nomination.

Two of the nominated Supreme Court justices passed the 17th Bar Examination with President Roh. The rest are from the 14th, 15th and 18th exams.

The security of court organizations weighed on this nomination from the candidate recommendation procedures of the Committee of Counselors on Supreme Court Justice Recommendations. The nomination in October last year received hard comments that it was a destruction of the hierarchic system, because it included two candidates who passed the 21st Bar Examination (Supreme Court justices Park Si-whan and Kim Ji-Hyeong).

Head of Gwangju District Court Jeon Su-ahn will make, if appointed and confirmed, the second female Supreme Court Justice following Kim Young-ran who was appointed in August 2004.

The nominees will be inaugurated around July 11 after confirmation hearings at the National Assembly planned in later this month or early next month and final vote at the Assembly plenary session on July 7.

Supreme Court Justices Kang Shin-uk, Lee Gyu-hong, Lee Kang-guk, Sohn Ji-yeol, and Park Jae-yun will retire on July 10.

The Supreme Court said, “Before the new Supreme Court justices are inaugurated, there will be personnel management of four heads of courts, including the Seoul District Court, as the candidate recommendations included four head of courts.”