Anchor: The Constitutional Court has ruled that acting President Choi Sang-mok violated the Constitution when he opted to defer the appointment of Ma Eun-hyuk as the court’s ninth justice. But the court declined to instruct the acting president to appoint Ma. 
Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that acting President Choi Sang-mok infringed on the National Assembly’s rights in choosing to delay the appointment of Justice nominee Ma Eun-hyuk.

The ruling, reached with the unanimous agreement of the eight sitting justices, settled a competence dispute raised by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik on behalf of parliament early last month. 

In filing the request for adjudication of the competence dispute, Woo had argued that by appointing only two of the three nominees put forth by parliament on December 31, Choi infringed on the Assembly’s right to form the Constitutional Court.

On the question of Woo’s right to file such a request in the absence of a plenary vote, the court said it did not find the move problematic. 

Regarding Choi’s assertion that there was no bipartisan agreement on Ma, the court said there is no reason to view the three justices differently when they were selected through the same procedure and confirmed the same day in a plenary vote. 

But the court dismissed Woo’s request to either instruct Choi to appoint Ma or recognize Ma as one of its justices, citing no legal basis to do so. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.