National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik filed a request for a dispute adjudication to the Constitutional Court on the afternoon of the 11th regarding Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's nomination of two candidates for the presidential share judge.
Speaker Woo submitted the request for dispute adjudication against Han's nomination of candidates Lee Wan-kyu and Ham Sang-hoon to the Constitutional Court around 4:30 p.m. that day. He also submitted a request for a provisional disposition to suspend the effect of the nominations.
The speaker's office sees the nomination of candidates for the presidential share judges by Acting Prime Minister Han as an overreach of authority. The request submitted by Speaker Woo that day reportedly contained arguments that the nomination infringes on the National Assembly's personnel hearing rights over the appointments of constitutional bodies and constitutes a serious violation of constitutional order.
It also included clear concerns that the nomination of candidates for the constitutional judges infringes on the National Assembly's rights to deliberate and vote on the nomination agreements and the powers of government control through the personnel hearing procedures.
Speaker Woo noted on Facebook, "It is a clear overreach of authority for a Prime Minister who is not elected by the people to use the position of acting president to intervene in the composition of constitutional bodies," adding, "The president who appointed Prime Minister Han has been dismissed by the Constitutional Court for constitutional violations."
He continued, "With this nomination of constitutional judges, Prime Minister Han is exacerbating national confusion again," and urged, "I hope that he will return to the basic attitude of a public official, withdraw the nominations for the presidential share judges, and immediately stop actions that disrupt the country."
Meanwhile, the People Power Party stated that it plans to receive opinions from interested parties on the request for dispute adjudication and the provisional disposition application submitted by Speaker Woo on the same day.
The People Power Party released a statement signed by Chief Legal Advisor Joo Jin-woo, stating, "The nomination of constitutional judges by Acting Prime Minister Han is clearly legal under the Constitution and the Constitutional Court Act and does not infringe or pose any risk of infringing the authority of the National Assembly," and added, "The sudden push for dispute adjudication raises suspicions that the speaker, who should maintain political neutrality, is acting at the behest of former Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung."
It further claimed, "Therefore, the speaker's request for dispute adjudication and provisional disposition lacks any basis for the right to protection and amounts to an unfounded political offensive in violation of political neutrality."