[Exclusive] Prosecutor Research Officer at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Transferred Directly Under the Chief Prosecutor... Yoon Regains Influence

From "Prosecutor General and Deputy Prosecutor Support Office" to "Prosecutor General" Alone... Duties Also Changed to "Prosecutor General's Command"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The command structure of the key position 'Prosecutor Research Officer' within the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, which studies prosecutorial affairs and draws up major policy plans, is changing. Prosecutor Research Officers were previously tasked with assisting both the Prosecutor General and the Deputy Prosecutor General, but this will be changed so that they assist only the Prosecutor General.

The change, which reduces the influence of the Deputy Prosecutor General, the second-in-command at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, carries significant meaning at this time. Many interpret that Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae appointed Cho Nam-gwan, Director of the Prosecutor's Office at the Ministry of Justice, as Deputy Prosecutor General in the recent high-level personnel reshuffle as a move to check Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol. There is ample room to see this as Prosecutor General Yoon’s effort to strengthen his influence within the Supreme Prosecutors' Office after being put on the defensive by successive prosecutorial personnel changes.

According to the prosecution on the 14th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office recently revised the Supreme Prosecutors' Office directive that regulates the division of duties for Prosecutor Research Officers. The main point was to adjust the detailed tasks and command structure of subordinate departments in line with the major changes in the upper organization of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office following the prosecutorial system reform in September.

Prosecutor Research Officers are responsible for planning, investigating, and researching prosecutorial affairs and drafting prosecutorial systems and policies. Information about them is not publicly disclosed and thus not well known, but it is understood that about 30 officers are scattered across various departments. Former Ulsan District Prosecutor Im Eun-jung, known as a critic within the prosecution, recently moved to the position of Prosecutor Research Officer (Inspection Policy Research Officer) in the latest personnel reshuffle.

First, the division of duties system for Prosecutor Research Officers was newly established. Until now, their tasks were determined by the Deputy Prosecutor General and overseen by a department head appointed by the Deputy Prosecutor General. However, going forward, the system will be changed so that the Deputy Prosecutor General determines tasks under the Prosecutor General’s orders, thereby strengthening their role as assistants to the Prosecutor General.

The revised directive explicitly states the role of Prosecutor Research Officers as 'assistants to the Prosecutor General' instead of 'assistants to the Prosecutor General and Deputy Prosecutor General.' Not only the task instructions but also the official command line have been changed to be directly under the Prosecutor General, enabling them to assist the Prosecutor General closely in practice.

A lawyer who is a former Prosecutor Research Officer at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office interpreted, "Although Prosecutor Research Officers are usually selected from ordinary prosecutors, there are also prosecutors with more than 10 years of experience who have been transferred more than four times, so this adjustment in the command line seems to have increased the weight of the Prosecutor Research Officers."

The separation of the Deputy Prosecutor General from the Prosecutor Research Officers can be interpreted in many ways given the timing. The current Deputy Prosecutor General Cho Nam-gwan served as an administrative officer at the Blue House during the Roh Moo-hyun administration and has ties with President Moon Jae-in. He also worked as an aide to Minister Choo. When he was appointed as the second-in-command at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in the recent personnel reshuffle, it was interpreted as the Ministry of Justice’s full-scale check on Prosecutor General Yoon.

Another lawyer from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said, "Since Prosecutor Research Officers are often affiliated with specific divisions, it was somewhat ambiguous to call them assistants to the Prosecutor General in practice. However, officially defining their role as assistants to the Prosecutor General this time may be viewed sensitively from outside in the future."

In fact, the scope of activities of Prosecutor Research Officers has been expanding recently. Since last year, in addition to prosecutorial affairs, they have increasingly been dispatched to sensitive investigation teams such as those investigating abuse of judicial administrative power and to practical departments for prosecutorial reform. This inevitably suggests a potential change in Prosecutor General Yoon’s intelligence capabilities going forward.

In addition, the duties of the Investigation Intelligence Officer have been newly assigned to expand their role. The Investigation Intelligence Policy Officer, who acted as the eyes and ears of the Prosecutor General, was downsized and reorganized. Previously, a Deputy Prosecutor General-level Investigation Intelligence Policy Officer worked with two Investigation Intelligence Officers, but now only one Investigation Intelligence Officer remains.

Usually, when an organization is downsized, some duties are transferred to related departments to adjust the scope of work, but in this reassignment, none of the existing duties handled by the Investigation Intelligence Policy Officer and Investigation Intelligence Officers 1 and 2 were removed; all were transferred as is to maintain their authority. Representative tasks include collecting information and materials related to public investigations such as corruption cases, economic order disruption cases, as well as national security, election, labor, and foreign affairs cases.

A Supreme Prosecutors' Office official said, "With the major changes in the Supreme Prosecutors' Office organization following the recent system reform, a new system for the scope of work and authority was needed, and the division of duties was made based on this. We will continue to make detailed adjustments as necessary to ensure smooth operation of the prosecutorial organization."

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