The leader of the Democratic Party has criticized acting President Han Duck-soo for overstepping his authority by nominating Lee Wan-kyu, minister of government legislation, and Ham Sang-hun, a justice of the Seoul High Court, to replace two outgoing Constitutional Court Justices set to retire next week.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday outside the Seoul Central District Court, after attending a hearing in the trial over the Daejang-dong development scandal, Lee said acting President Han “seems to have mistaken himself as president.”

Lee stressed that the nine-member bench of the Constitutional Court is composed of three justices selected by the elected president, three selected by the National Assembly, and three selected by the neutral Supreme Court.

In the morning, before entering the court, Lee refused to answer questions from reporters about why he refused to obey an earlier summons to testify as a witness in the development scandal trial and the prosecution’s appeal of the appellate court’s acquittal of his subornation of perjury case.

There is keen interest on Lee’s perjury case as it is expected to be concluded with a final hearing scheduled on the same day as the next presidential election set for June 3.