Chief Justice Cho recommends two candidates for Supreme Court

Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae has formally requested President Lee Jae-myung to appoint two new justices to the Supreme Court. The nominations are for the positions to be vacated by Justice Roh Tae-ak, who retired in March, and Justice Lee Heung-gu, who is set to retire in September.

The recommended candidates are Son Bong-ki, a presiding judge at Daegu District Court, and Kim Sung-soo, a presiding judge at Seoul High Court. This marks the first time Chief Justice Cho has submitted nominations since President Lee's inauguration, signaling a step forward in filling the court's vacancies.

Judge Son, 61, hails from Busan and has spent his entire 30-year career presiding over cases in the Yeongnam region. Judge Kim, 58, is from Hampyeong in South Jeolla Province and began his judicial career in 1998 at the Gwangju District Court. He has also served in administrative roles, including as an ethics audit officer at the Court Administration and Management Bureau and a senior professor at the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

Previously, in January, the Supreme Court Justice Recommendation Committee had put forward four candidates, including Judge Son, to succeed Justice Roh. However, disagreements between the Supreme Court and the presidential office over the appointments had delayed the nomination process. Traditionally, such nominations are finalized after a meeting between the President and the Chief Justice, but the process for these two candidates proceeded differently, with the Chief Justice submitting the request directly.