The chief justice is regarded as one of two equivalent heads of judicial branch in Government of South Korea.

The current chief justice of the Supreme Court of Korea is Cho Hee-dae who was appointed by Yoon Suk Yeol after his first nominee was rejected by the National Assembly.

While article 105(1) of Constitution sets term length of the chief justice as non-renewable single term of six-years, its mandatory age of retirement is delegated to sub-constitutional regulation by article 105(4) of Constitution.

Currently, the chief justice's mandatory age of retirement is 70 by article 45(4) of Court Organization Act.

[5] A more substantial role of the chief justice is governing political and administrative tasks in ordinary courts, as the chief is head of hierarchy of conventional judiciary consisted of all ordinary courts in South Korea.