Acting Han Deok-soo said, "The appointment of a constitutional judge is suspended until the ruling and opposition parties agree."

Acting President Han said, "Pending the appointment of a constitutional judge until the ruling and opposition parties reach an agreement,"

Reiterating the existing position virtually

"Acting as an acting authority, a role devoted to state administration"

[Anchor]
Acting President Han Deok-soo has decided to suspend the appointment of a constitutional judge until the ruling and opposition parties agree.

For that reason, the acting president explained that the constitutional spirit is to focus only on the operation of state affairs and to refrain from exercising the president's significant powers, including the appointment of constitutional institutions.

For more information, I'll connect you to a reporter. Reporter Park Heejae!

Acting President Han Deok-soo has decided to suspend the appointment of a constitutional judge. Please tell me the details.

[Reporter]
Yes, it came out through a public statement at 1:30 p.m. at the Seoul Government Complex.

It was a position that the appointment of a constitutional judge would be put on hold until the ruling and opposition parties submitted an agreement.

Let's listen to the content first.

[Han Deok-soo / Acting President: I will hold off on the appointment of a constitutional judge until the ruling and opposition parties agree to submit the proposal. If the ruling and opposition parties agree and submit the proposal, we will appoint a constitutional judge immediately.]

It is actually a repetition of the position that the ruling and opposition parties have previously said that they should agree first.

In this conversation, it was done by explaining the specific reason for that position.

Regarding the scope of the acting president's exercise of authority, Han Deok-soo explained that it is a role devoted to stable state administration so that the country can overcome the crisis.

For this reason, he said that it is a consistent spirit contained in the Constitution and laws to refrain from exercising the president's significant authority, including the appointment of constitutional institutions.

However, he said the reason for the suspension of the appointment was because it has been customary for the ruling and opposition parties to agree at the National Assembly if they had to exercise their authority inevitably.

In a situation where division and conflict are severe like now, securing democratic legitimacy is mainly based on the agreement between the ruling party and the opposition party, the representative of the people, and also described it as the "last bank."

In this situation, the opposition party is pressuring the acting president to appoint a constitutional judge without an agreement,
He pointed out that the other principles of the constitutional order of stable state administration are also feared to be undermined.

It effectively rejected the opposition's demand to appoint a constitutional judge as soon as the motion for the appointment of three constitutional judges recommended by the National Assembly passes the plenary session.

As the public statement did not mention the position of First Lady Kim Gun-hee and the Special Prosecutor for Insurrection Act separately, attention is also being paid to whether additional positions will be made in the future.

I'm Park Heejae of YTN in the Prime Minister's Office.