New crop of judges mostly female

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New crop of judges mostly female

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New judges take the oath of office at a ceremony yesterday at the Supreme Court in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul. About 70 percent of the new judges are women. [YONHAP]

A record number of 67 women were appointed as judges yesterday, more than two-thirds of the total, a Supreme Court official said.
The Supreme Court held the appointment ceremony in the main hall of its headquarters in southern Seoul yesterday.
A total of 96 judges were inducted. Of them, 67, including 26-year-old Lee Kyung-min, who ranked No. 1 among the 2008 graduates of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, are women.
The reason for so many women? They simply scored better on their exams. Out of the 1,000 students in the institute, the graduates with the top scores are named judges.
According to a report released by the Supreme Court, 20 more female judges were appointed this year than last year.
Last year, women made up 48 percent of the 97 judges appointed. Out of the 15 new judges appointed this year to the Seoul Central District Court, 12 are women.
The country now has a total of 496 female judges qualified to decide cases. That number is 21.5 percent of the total 2,307 active judges in Korea.
Four years ago, only 275 of the country’s 2,092 judges, or 13.1 percent of the total, were women.
The Supreme Court said that this year’s appointments saw a 17.6 percent rise in female judges compared to 2004.
“As the number of female judges has increased, the judges’ points of view have become more diverse,” said Cho Kyung-ran, a judge at the Seoul High Court. “I think this phenomenon is very positive.”
The 96 new judges will be start-ing their careers soon in the local district courts they have been to appointed across the country.


By Park Sung-woo JoongAng Ilbo/ Park Sang-woo Contributing Writer [enational@joongang.co.kr]
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