Chief Justice Jo Hee-de on the 18th recommended to President Lee Jae-myung the appointment of Son Bong-gi (60, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 22), presiding judge at the Daegu District Court, and Kim Seong-su (57, class 24), presiding judge at the Seoul High Court, as new Supreme Court justices.
Supreme Court justice nominee Son Bong-gi was recommended for appointment as the successor to former Supreme Court Justice Roh Tae-ak, who retired in March when his term expired. Supreme Court justice nominee Kim Seong-su was recommended for appointment as the successor to Supreme Court Justice Lee Heung-gu, who will retire in September when the term expires.
If the two nominees are confirmed by a majority of lawmakers present with a majority of registered lawmakers in attendance at a plenary session after a National Assembly confirmation hearing, the president will appoint them as Supreme Court justices.
◇Nominee Son Bong-gi adopts gait analysis evidence for the first time in Korea in the "Geumho River murder case"
Son was born in Busan and graduated from Dalseong High School in Daegu and the Department of Law at Korea University. He was appointed a judge at the Daegu District Court in 1996 and has served only in the Daegu, North Gyeongsang and Ulsan regions for about 30 years, making him a so-called "local judge."
Son was selected as an excellent judge in 2013 and 2014 in a judicial evaluation conducted by the Daegu Bar Association. Under the court president candidate recommendation system implemented in 2019 during Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su's tenure, he was appointed president of the Daegu District Court. Since 2021, he has been recommended as a Supreme Court justice candidate.
A Supreme Court official said of Son, "Based on extensive legal knowledge and outstanding legal reasoning, he excels in both theory and practice," adding, "With smooth proceedings that respect the parties, logically persuasive reasoning, and fair and reasonable conclusions, he has earned deep trust from litigants."
While serving as a presiding judge at the Daegu District Court, Son identified the perpetrator and sentenced the person to life imprisonment using evidence such as gait analysis materials in the "Geumho River murder case," where there were no other clues besides a closed-circuit (CC)TV video of the victim walking with a man whose face could not be identified. It was the first case in which gait analysis, which analyzes a person's walk, was admitted as evidence in court.
He also conducted the "Sangju pesticide cider" case as a citizen participation trial for five consecutive days, examining the case thoroughly and efficiently. It confirmed that even cases with complex evidentiary examinations can be tried through citizen participation trials to reflect jurors' sound common sense and reasonable judgments in the proceedings.
◇Nominee Kim Seong-su orders court detention of Won Se-hoon… lowers fine for Cho Hee-yeon
Kim was born in Hampyeong, South Jeolla, and graduated from Inseong High School in Gwangju and the Department of Law at Hanyang University. He began his judicial career in 1998 as a judge at the Gwangju District Court and served at the Haenam Branch of the Gwangju District Court, the Seoul High Court, as ethics audit deliberation officer at the National Court Administration, as a presiding judge at the Jeju District Court, as senior presiding judge at the Cheongju District Court, and as chief professor at the Judicial Research and Training Institute. He was selected as an excellent judge in 2018 and 2019 in the judicial evaluation by the North Chungcheong Bar Association.
A Supreme Court official explained of Kim, "While serving as chief professor at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, he contributed to strengthening the adjudication capabilities of judiciary members through the reform of the judicial training system, training for judicial researchers, military judges and judicial assistants, the expansion of international cooperation, and the publication of various practice manuals."
In a case in which participants in a rally who broke into the Seoul Western District Court in protest of the issuance of an arrest warrant for former President Yoon Suk-yeol in December last year were indicted, Kim sentenced most defendants to prison terms. At the time, Kim presented various perspectives on issues such as the level of proof and degree of punishment when multiple people collectively intrude into a specific place and engage in violent words and actions.
In February 2015, while serving as a high court judge in Criminal Division 6 of the Seoul High Court, Kim served as the presiding judge in the appellate trial of former National Intelligence Service Director Won Se-hoon's case, recognized the election interference charge, and ordered court detention by sentencing him to three years in prison, a heavier sentence than the first-instance suspended prison term.
In September of the same year, in the case of then-Seoul education chief candidate Koh Seung-duk raising suspicions about holding U.S. permanent residency that led to the indictment of then-Seoul education chief Cho Hee-yeon, he overturned the first-instance ruling that imposed a 5 million won fine and found some charges not guilty, issuing a suspended sentence of a 2.5 million won fine. The Supreme Court finalized the ruling, allowing Cho to keep the post. At the time, the presiding judge of Criminal Division 6 at the Seoul High Court was Constitutional Court President Kim Sang-hwan.