All six supreme court justices approved

252 members of the National Assembly voted for the approval of all Supreme Court Justice nominees during the plenary session held today. The new justices are Lee Kyu-Hong, Chief Judge of the Cheju District Court; Lee Kang-Kook, Chief Judge of the Taejon District Court; Son Ji-Yol, Head of the Ministry of the Court Administration; Park Jae-Yoon, Senior Judge of the Seoul District Court; Kang Shin-Wook, head of the Senior High Public Prosecutors Office; and Bae Ki-Won, Vice-chairman of the Korean Bar Association.

Four of the justices received approval by a wide margin, receiving only 20-22 ¡°nay¡± votes. However, 67 opposed the appointment of Judge Park who had been grilled about his ruling in favor of the families of Sansung Group Chairman Lee Kun-Hee in their controversial acquisition of Samsung SDS stocks. Kang, who had been plagued with questions during the confirmation hearings about his role in the controversial investigation of a suicide case, also faced 69 votes of disapproval.

The New Millenium Democratic (NMD) and the Grand National Party (GNP) chose a cross voting process where neither party decided on party-line endorsement or opposition of the Supreme Court justice nominees prior to the voting.

The Assembly will debate on issues regarding politics, reunification, diplomacy, national security, the economy, society and culture during the next four days. The NMD will focus on the administration¡¯s upcoming reform plans and the follow-up measures of the inter-Korean summit talks. The GNP, in turn, will raise doubts about the administration¡¯s handling of the financial crisis and the investigation of the April parliamentary elections.