If Early Tomorrow, Prosecutor General Personnel Changes... Tension Builds in Prosecution Ahead of Choo Mi-ae's Personnel Storm

Prosecutor Personnel Committee Tomorrow... 8-9 Chief Prosecutors from 27th-28th Classes Likely to be Promoted
Attention on Lee Seong-yoon's Promotion or Retention as High Prosecutor
Choo Expected to Implement Strict Personnel Measures... Yoon Prosecutor General Possibly 'Passed Over' Again
Ministry of Justice Considering Abolishing Deputy Chief Prosecutor Position at Supreme Prosecutors' Office... Possible Aftershock from Personnel Changes

Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] As the personnel reshuffle for senior prosecutors at the level of chief prosecutors and above approaches, a tense atmosphere is spreading within the prosecution ahead of a personnel storm triggered by Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae.

Amid expectations of retaliatory personnel moves by Minister Choo, who had intense conflicts with Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol over investigations into the ‘Han Myeong-sook related case’ and the ‘media-prosecution collusion’ case, attention is focused on the position of Lee Seong-yoon, the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, who is classified as pro-government.

According to the legal community on the 29th, the Ministry of Justice will hold a Prosecutor Personnel Committee meeting on the morning of the 30th to discuss personnel matters for senior prosecutors at the level of chief prosecutors and above.

According to usual practice, personnel announcements are made the day after the committee meeting, but there was a precedent in January when the announcement was made on the day of the meeting, and since the meeting is held in the morning, there is a possibility that appointments for high-ranking prosecutors and district prosecutors’ office chiefs could be announced as early as the 30th.

◆Focus on Promotion of Chief Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon and ‘Passing Over’ Prosecutor General Yoon= Ahead of this personnel reshuffle, senior prosecutors who were seniors or classmates of Prosecutor General Yoon from the first class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute have stepped down, and the day before, Cho Sang-jun, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, submitted his resignation, increasing the number of vacancies at the chief prosecutor level and above to 11.

These include the heads of the Seoul and Busan High Prosecutors’ Offices, five deputy chiefs of high prosecutors’ offices, the heads of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office and Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office, the head of the Human Rights Department at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, and the head of the Planning Department at the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

Due to the policy to reduce the number of chief prosecutor positions, at least eight of these vacancies are expected to be filled, excluding some positions left vacant in the previous reshuffle.

The most attention is on whether Chief Prosecutor Lee will be promoted.

Having worked as a prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, he was promoted to chief prosecutor under the current administration and has held key positions such as head of the Criminal Affairs Department and Anti-Corruption Department at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, as well as the Ministry of Justice’s Prosecutor’s Office Director and head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which are considered among the top three posts in the prosecution.

Therefore, it was expected that he, as a leading candidate for the next Prosecutor General, would be promoted to head of a high prosecutors’ office in this reshuffle. However, due to recent complications in the ‘media-prosecution collusion’ case, the leak of the late Mayor Park Won-soon’s complaint, and the ‘investigation secret leak’ case that led to a KBS false report, there is also a possibility that he will remain in his current position.

Some suggest the possibility of maintaining him while elevating the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office chief to a high prosecutors’ office level as before, but this is unlikely given the current administration’s policy to reduce the number of senior prosecution posts.

As of the day before the Personnel Committee meeting, the Ministry of Justice reportedly has not requested an opinion letter from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office regarding chief prosecutor personnel matters. This increases the likelihood that the ‘passing over’ of the Prosecutor General’s opinion in personnel decisions will continue this time as well.

Former and current prosecutors from the Ministry of Justice and prosecution agree that it was unimaginable before Minister Choo’s tenure for the minister to carry out personnel reshuffles without consulting the Prosecutor General.

A former high prosecutor who was directly in charge of prosecution personnel said, “Although the minister and the Prosecutor General consult, basically, the Ministry of Justice’s department heads are chosen by the minister, while the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office executives and frontline prosecutors’ office chiefs are selected by the Prosecutor General, each picking their own people to work with. It makes no sense to put someone like Chief Prosecutor Lee, who does not listen to the Prosecutor General, in charge of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office and then tell the Prosecutor General to conduct investigations.”

◆Attention on Whether Promotions to Chief Prosecutor Will Be Based on Merit and Punishment= Following the previous reshuffle, there is interest in whether Minister Choo will exclude or demote prosecutors who investigated cases related to the current administration or who were favored by Prosecutor General Yoon.

In the past, prosecutors who were top performers and recognized for their investigative abilities in each class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute were prioritized for promotion. However, in this reshuffle, whether a prosecutor belongs to Minister Choo’s or Chief Prosecutor Lee’s faction, or Prosecutor General Yoon’s faction, and whether they were active or passive in investigating cases involving the current administration, will likely play a bigger role.

Inside and outside the prosecution, it is predicted that chief prosecutors classified as part of the ‘Yoon Seok-yeol faction’?such as Yoon Dae-jin, Deputy Director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute; Lee Doo-bong, head of the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office; Park Chan-ho, head of the Jeju District Prosecutors’ Office; and Han Dong-hoon, research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute?and those who investigated cases involving former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk’s family, such as Ko Hyung-gon, head of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Department at the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office, and Kim Tae-eun, head of the Public Security Division 2 at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, will face disadvantages in personnel decisions.

On the other hand, those who opposed Prosecutor General Yoon in the ‘media-prosecution collusion’ case, such as Kim Kwan-jung, head of the Criminal Affairs Department at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office; Shim Jae-cheol, head of the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Department at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office; and those who directly led the investigation of the ‘media-prosecution collusion’ case, including Lee Jung-hyun, first deputy chief at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, and Jung Jin-woong, head of the Criminal Division 1 at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, are expected to be promoted or receive career advancements.

The most attention-grabbing chief prosecutor promotions are expected to fill 8 to 9 positions, with four promotions each from the 27th and 28th classes of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, and one from the 26th class, three from the 27th, and four from the 28th.

The top candidates for promotion to chief prosecutor are Lee Jung-hyun, first deputy chief (27th class); Lee Geun-soo, second deputy chief (28th class); Shin Sung-sik, third deputy chief (27th class); and Kim Wook-jun, fourth deputy chief (28th class), all of whom joined the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office alongside Chief Prosecutor Lee. However, like Chief Prosecutor Lee, they face the variable of sensitive pending issues at the Central District Prosecutors’ Office.

Lee Moon-han, head of the Goyang Branch Prosecutors’ Office (27th class), who is an alumnus of Hanyang University’s Law Department along with Minister Choo, and Shin Ja-yong, head of the Busan Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office (28th class), are also expected to be promoted.

Other strong candidates include Lee Jong-geun, first deputy chief at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office (28th class), who was a policy advisor to former Minister Park Sang-ki and was appointed to the Ministry of Justice during former Minister Cho Kuk’s tenure, serving as deputy head of the Prosecution Reform Promotion Support Group; Joo Young-hwan, head of the Seongnam Branch Prosecutors’ Office (27th class), who investigated the savings bank corruption case and the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering case; and Jeon Sung-won, head of the Bucheon Branch Prosecutors’ Office (27th class), known for excellence in investigating economic crimes.

From the 26th class, Song Gyu-jong, a prosecutor from Goheung, Jeonnam, who served as the Ministry of Justice’s Inspection Officer and head of the Inspection Department at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office and is currently assigned to the National Intelligence Service from the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, is mentioned as a promotion candidate.

◆Tense Atmosphere in the Prosecution... Possible Backlash Against Personnel Decisions= Recently, the Ministry of Justice’s Justice and Prosecution Reform Committee recommended a radical plan to drastically reduce the Prosecutor General’s authority and expand the minister’s investigative control. However, perhaps due to the upcoming personnel reshuffle, no significant rebuttal posts have appeared on the prosecution’s internal network.

However, if Minister Choo carries out blatant favoritism toward her own faction or demotes prosecutors who investigated specific cases involving ruling party figures in this reshuffle, accumulated dissatisfaction within the prosecution could explode.

Moreover, following last year’s significant reduction of direct investigation departments within the prosecution, the Ministry of Justice is reportedly considering abolishing deputy chief prosecutor-level positions such as planning officers, policy officers, and senior researchers at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, signaling moves to weaken the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the Prosecutor General.

Prosecutors’ dissatisfaction and complaints about Minister Choo’s unilateral prosecution reform drive are reaching a breaking point, raising the possibility that if retaliatory demotions materialize, prosecutors who fail to be promoted may collectively resign in protest.

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