Jo Hee-dae: "Serve the People with a Humble Attitude... Supreme Court Justice Nomination to Proceed Immediately"

New Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae said on the 8th, "I will serve the people with humility and do my best."

Cho Hee-dae, nominee for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is delivering the oath statement to Chairman Joo Ho-young at the confirmation hearing held at the National Assembly on the 5th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

About an hour and 30 minutes after the National Assembly approved the appointment consent, Chief Justice Cho met with reporters around 4 p.m. in front of a building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, which was used as the hearing preparation team's office, and responded to questions about his thoughts.

Chief Justice Cho said, "The members of the judiciary will renew their determination and strive to ensure that both trials and judicial administration are conducted promptly and fairly according to law and principles," adding, "I ask for the National Assembly's, government’s, and the public’s much interest and encouragement so that the judiciary can move in the right direction."

Regarding the expiration of the terms of Justices Ahn Cheol-sang and Min Yoo-sook on January 1 next year, he replied, "We will start the (nomination) process immediately from tomorrow. However, since the minimum necessary time is required, I think the appointment will be possible no earlier than March."

On the issue of "trial delays," which was identified as the most urgent problem during the hearing process, he said, "We will look for possible implementation measures and plan to focus on discussing this issue at the court presidents' meeting scheduled for December."

Regarding the malware infection of the judiciary's computer network suspected to be caused by North Korea, he responded, "It has been decided to cooperate with related agencies to investigate and establish countermeasures."

Chief Justice Cho is expected to receive his appointment letter from President Yoon Suk-yeol later in the afternoon. The inauguration ceremony will be held on the 11th. With this, the 74-day vacancy in the head of the judiciary following the retirement of former Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo has come to an end.