Jeong Jeongsik: "Supreme Court Vacancy Is President Lee's Responsibility... Blaming Chief Justice Cho Is Brazen"

Jung Jeongsik, floor leader of the People Power Party, on the 23rd criticized the Blue House for voicing concern over the vacancy on the Supreme Court following its refusal to heed Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae's request for a new Supreme Court justice nomination. Jung called the move "audacious," stating, "The responsibility for the vacancy lies with President Lee Jaemyung, who has been pressuring the Chief Justice to nominate Presiding Judge Kim Minki as Supreme Court justice."

Jung Jeongsik, floor leader of the People Power Party, is attending the party policy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 18th. 2026.09.18 Photo by Dongjoo Yoon

Through a Facebook post on this day, the floor leader said, "President Lee not only made a legally baseless request to resubmit a nomination, but for the past six months he has persistently pressured the Chief Justice to recommend a judge of his own choosing. This constitutes a violation of the Chief Justice’s right to make nominations and is an unconstitutional act that undermines the separation of powers."

Regarding concerns about a Supreme Court justice vacancy, Jung also said, "This is yet another example of the hypocrisy characteristic of the Lee Jaemyung administration. The chief of the National Police Agency has been absent for 21 months and the Prosecutor General for 14 months. Does a president responsible for such an absurd situation even have the right to comment about the vacancy on the Supreme Court?"

He continued, "What is even more outrageous is that although a nominee for the head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Office has been named, the nomination request has not been sent to the National Assembly for over two weeks. Even if this request is sent today, it is physically inevitable that there will be a simultaneous vacancy for both the head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Office and the Public Prosecution Service Chief on October 2, as well as an unavoidable operational gap."

Jung concluded, "The only way to resolve the Supreme Court justice vacancy is to promptly submit the consent motion for Supreme Court justice nominee Son Bonggi to the National Assembly. Additionally, in order to stabilize the criminal justice system, nominees for both the National Police Agency Chief and the Public Prosecution Service Chief should be named without further delay."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.