The Supreme Court made the final decision not to reappoint a Seoul court judge who set off controversy by posting vulgar words about President Lee Myung-bak on his social networking site.

The top court’s personnel committee last week assessed the job performance of 180 judges who have served for the past 10 or 20 years as of 2012 and evaluated certain judges as “unfit” for their job.

Only those who failed to be reappointed were notified by the top court, and Seo Ki-ho of the Seoul Northern District Court is among them.

Seo told the Yonhap news agency that he received a phone call from the Supreme Court that the notification would arrive at his office later in the day.

In December, Seo wrote a post on his Facebook which criticized Lee using obscenities. It sparked debates as to whether judges should stay politically neutral in their comments when using SNS and his vulgar remarks also triggered criticism.

He reportedly said he plans to appeal the Supreme Court’s decision to the Constitutional Court, if he fails to be reappointed without reasonable and fair assessment procedure.

It is rare an incumbent judge fails to be reappointed by the Supreme Court. Only three judges have been labeled “unfit” since the assessment began in 1988.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)