The National Assembly's Constitutional Amendment Special Committee Discusses Appointment Method of Constitutional Court Justices Amid 'Bias Controversy'

"Discussions Also Addressed Preventing Excessive Impeachment by the Majority Party"

The People Power Party's Special Committee on Constitutional Amendment (Constitutional Amendment Special Committee) discussed the decentralized presidential system and the appointment method of constitutional court judges on the 27th.

Assemblyman Yoo Sang-beom stated in a briefing after the committee meeting at the National Assembly that day, "We discussed how to handle the appointment authority of the president as the head of state, including Supreme Court justices and constitutional court judges."

Joo Ho-young, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Chair of the People Power Party's Special Committee on Constitutional Amendment, is explaining the content of the first meeting at his office in the National Assembly on March 4, 2025. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

As the issue of political bias among constitutional court judges was seriously raised, they debated ways to appoint moderate constitutional court judges rather than those at the extremes, and specific details will be addressed further.

They also exchanged opinions on the decentralized presidential system and the responsible prime minister system. Assemblyman Yoo explained, "We roughly talked about the prime minister's authority, appointment method, and dismissal method, and decided to organize cases from various countries on how to apply decentralization for further discussion."

Lastly, they addressed the problems of the imperial presidency and the imperial legislature, which are also considered issues.

Assemblyman Yoo pointed out, "During the Democratic Party of Korea's excessive use of impeachment, the provision that suspends the duties of the president, including ministers and prosecutors, caused confusion in state affairs and led to a crisis where government operations were halted."

He added, "To prevent the current minority ruling party from excessively using impeachment to suspend the duties of specific ministers, it is necessary to resolve the issue of checks and balances between the National Assembly and the executive branch. We have begun discussions on how to establish a healthy relationship between the National Assembly and the executive branch."