National Assembly Approves Nomination Bills for Supreme Court Justices Noh Kyung-pil and Park Young-jae

On the 1st, the National Assembly passed the appointment consent bills for Supreme Court Justice candidates Noh Kyung-pil and Park Young-jae at the plenary session.

On the same day, the National Assembly announced that the appointment consent bill for candidate Noh was passed by a secret ballot during the plenary session in the afternoon, with 272 votes in favor, 10 against, and 1 abstention out of 283 members present. The appointment consent bill for candidate Park was approved with 269 votes in favor, 12 against, and 2 abstentions out of 283 members present.

Candidate Noh is a constitutional and administrative law expert who served as a research judge at the Supreme Court for five years in the constitutional and administrative division. He handled complex constitutional and administrative cases that reached the Supreme Court. While serving at the Seoul High Court and Suwon High Court, he was in charge of the administrative trial division. Candidate Park is known as a judge who has handled civil, criminal, and administrative cases for 28 years. He has held various positions including professor at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, deliberation officer at the Court Administration Office, director of planning and coordination, and deputy director of the Court Administration Office.

On the 29th, the amendment to the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act, one of the 'Broadcasting Four Acts,' is being submitted at the National Assembly plenary session. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Park Beom-gye, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and chairman of the Special Committee on Personnel Hearings regarding the appointment of Supreme Court Justices, stated in the pre-vote review report that candidate Noh "has issued numerous rulings protecting socially vulnerable groups, and aside from the fact that the candidate’s spouse had a six-month period of false residence registration, no unfavorable issues related to the candidate’s personal background or morality were found. The candidate holds a firm belief in securing judicial independence and enhancing trust."

Regarding candidate Park, Park said, "Some hearing committee members pointed out that the candidate’s eldest daughter served as a member of the Bar Examination Management Committee during the period she took the bar exam, and that the reasons for the increase in assets and gift details of the candidate, spouse, and eldest daughter were not clearly explained. They also noted that the candidate’s spouse paid gift tax, which had not been paid previously, during the process of the candidate’s nomination." However, he added, "Considering comprehensively that the candidate appears to have the will and capability to prepare reasonable improvement measures for the current issues faced by the courts, it was judged that the candidate can perform the duties of a Supreme Court Justice smoothly."