70 New Prosecutors from Law School Appointed... Largest Number Ever

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Seventy new prosecutors who passed the 9th Bar Examination from law school graduates were newly appointed as prosecutors.

The Ministry of Justice announced their new appointments on the 11th, stating that they have been provisionally assigned to 24 district prosecutor's offices including the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, and after completing practical training, they plan to be officially assigned in line with the regular personnel reshuffle in the first half of next year.

This appointment of 70 prosecutors is the largest scale since the first appointment of 42 prosecutors from law school graduates (1st Bar Examination passers) in April 2012. This number excludes prosecutors from military legal officers and experienced prosecutors who were formerly lawyers.

The Ministry of Justice explained that the selection process included document screening verifying academic achievement and expertise, practical record evaluation, personality tests assessing public service ethics, ethical awareness, human rights consciousness, a three-stage competency evaluation, and organizational competency evaluation.

Additionally, to enhance objectivity and fairness, a 'blind test' was conducted during the competency evaluation process, where all personal information of applicants was withheld from the evaluators.

Among the newly selected prosecutors, there are individuals with diverse professional backgrounds.

Certified public accountants, patent attorneys, Korean medicine doctors, pharmacists, and employees from public enterprises (Deposit Insurance Corporation) were selected.

The commissioning ceremony for the new prosecutors was held at around 2 p.m. at the Gwacheon Government Complex in Gyeonggi Province on the same day.

Considering that social distancing measures shifted from 'social distancing' to 'everyday distancing' starting from the 6th, family members of the new prosecutors also attended the ceremony.

However, due to the recent occurrence of multiple confirmed cases of COVID-19 among people who visited clubs in Itaewon, Seoul, the number of attendees was minimized to two family members per new prosecutor.

A Ministry of Justice official stated, "Measures such as mask-wearing, temperature checks for all attendees, and maintaining distance between attendees were implemented."

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