Former Constitutional Court chief Kim Yong-jun’s appointment as a co-chair of the Saenuri Party’s central election committee Thursday holds symbolic significance for Park Geun-hye, whose campaign focuses on national unity, law and order, and protection of the socially weak.

For Park, a conservative and the daughter of the authoritarian former President Park Chung-hee, Kim’s recruitment underscores her resolve to achieve social reconciliation. 

In addition, the former justice is a figure who represents strong legal principles, which Park has emphasized throughout her political life.

In 1988, he became a justice of the Supreme Court, and from 1994 to 2000 he served as the president of the Constitutional Court.

While Kim’s center-right political stance is not far removed from that of Park, he has a history of passing politically unbiased rulings, even during the authoritarian administration of her father.

In 1963, Kim ruled against the detention of former Army Chief of Staff Song Yo-chan who had been under arrest for opposing Park Chung-hee running for president that year.

Additionally, Kim is the country’s first Supreme Court justice with a handicap. When he was 3 years old, he contracted polio that left him disabled.

In the second year of high school, Kim took the high school general equivalency test and enrolled at Seoul National University to study law. In his third year at the university he passed the national judiciary examination with the highest score and became the country’s youngest judge in 1960.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)