Four candidates have been shortlisted to succeed Supreme Court Justice Lee Heung-gu: Kim Moon-kwan (62, Judicial Research and Training Institute 23rd class), Kim Sung-soo (58, 24th class), Kim Ye-young (51, 30th class), and Kim Jeong-jung (60, 26th class).
On August 4, the Supreme Court Justice Candidate Recommendation Committee held a meeting and recommended these four candidates to Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae from a pool of 28 candidates.
Chief Justice Cho plans to review the candidates' key rulings and professional backgrounds and will gather opinions until August 7 to select one final candidate. This candidate will then be recommended for appointment to President Lee Jae-myung.
However, since a successor for former Justice Noh Tae-ack, who retired in March, has not yet been recommended, there is speculation that both positions may be filled simultaneously.
During the meeting with the recommendation committee, Chief Justice Cho expressed, "I apologize for not finalizing the previous recommendation yet, but I will work to complete it well moving forward." Legal circles interpret this statement as suggesting the possibility of recommending two Supreme Court candidates at once.
Earlier, the committee for recommending a successor to former Justice Noh had proposed four candidates in January: Kim Min-ki, Park Soon-young, Son Bong-ki, and Yoon Sung-sik, all judges at the Seoul High Court and Daegu District Court. However, due to disagreements between the presidential office and the judiciary regarding the final candidate, the recommendation has been delayed for over six months.
Meanwhile, Justice Lee is set to retire on September 7.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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