'Claims of Cho Kuk's No Charges' by Prosecutor Sim Jae-cheol Spark Controversy, 'Sim Jae-cheol Out' Trending Search Emerges

Shim Jae-cheol, Head of the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, at the Center of Controversy

Photo by Portal Site Naver Screen Capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suwan] Shim Jae-cheol, head of the Anti-Corruption and Violence Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, sparked controversy by insisting that former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk's 'Yoo Jae-soo investigation cover-up' case should be dismissed without charges, leading to 'Shim Jae-cheol Out' appearing as a real-time trending search term on the 20th.

'Shim Jae-cheol Out' ranked 18th on Naver's real-time trending search list around 2:25 PM that day. The search term first appeared at 10:21 AM, climbed to 2nd place by 11 AM, and then dropped in ranking afterward.

The reason 'Shim Jae-cheol Out' trended is related to an incident on the 18th when Yang Seok-jo (47, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 29), senior researcher of the Anti-Corruption and Violence Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, protested to Director Shim at a funeral held at a hospital in Samsung-dong, Seoul, where a father-in-law's funeral was taking place.

Senior Researcher Yang Seok-jo recently protested to Prosecutor Shim Jae-cheol, head of the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Division, at the funeral hall for the father-in-law of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office department head regarding the indictment of Cho Kuk.
Photo by Yonhap News

At the time, Senior Researcher Yang reportedly loudly protested to Director Shim, who advocated for Cho's non-prosecution, saying, "Explain why Cho Kuk is not charged," and "Are you even a prosecutor?"

Earlier, upon his appointment on the 13th, Director Shim reportedly expressed the opinion that Cho Kuk should be re-examined from the beginning, stating, "We need to review (the abuse of power charges against former Minister Cho) from scratch," indicating that Cho should be cleared of charges.

Director Shim served as head of the Ministry of Justice Policy Planning Division from August 2017, early in the Moon Jae-in administration. In July of the following year, he served as spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice. Afterward, in August last year, he moved to become the first deputy chief prosecutor at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, then served as team leader for Minister Choo Mi-ae's confirmation hearing, and was appointed head of the Anti-Corruption and Violence Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office through a promotion to chief prosecutor on the 8th of this month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.