Yoon Seok-yeol Visits Daejeon for 'Wolseong Nuclear Plant Closure Investigation'... "Came to Hear Difficulties"

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol (center), who resumed nationwide prosecutor's office tour meetings after 8 months, arrived at the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office on the afternoon of the 29th for a meeting with prosecutors from the Daejeon area. After greeting Kang Nam-il, Chief Prosecutor of the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office (left), and Lee Du-bong, Chief Prosecutor of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, he is moving on.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol visited the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office and District Prosecutors' Office on the 29th, saying, "I came to see how the prosecution family is working and to listen to their difficulties."

Before entering the Daejeon Prosecutors' Office building in Seo-gu, Daejeon, in the afternoon, Prosecutor General Yoon said, "As the Prosecutor General, I want to directly see how the Daejeon prosecution family is working, listen to their difficulties, and also pat their backs." When asked by reporters about his thoughts on Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae's exercise of investigative authority and inspection orders, he did not give any particular answer and went straight into the building. Prosecutor General Yoon then moved to the adjacent Daejeon Court Complex to pay a courtesy visit to Kim Kwang-tae, Chief Judge of the Daejeon High Court, and returned to the prosecutors' office to hold a closed-door staff meeting on the topic of prosecutorial reform.

This was Prosecutor General Yoon's first visit to Daejeon in three years and five months since his appointment as Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in May 2017. At that time, Yoon, who was a prosecutor at the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office, was promoted and appointed as Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office with the Blue House's evaluation that he was "the right person to smoothly carry out additional investigations and maintain prosecutions related to the Choi Soon-sil gate." After taking office as Prosecutor General in July last year, he resumed local visits on this day, which had been temporarily suspended since February to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) following visits to Busan and Gwangju.

While visits by the Prosecutor General to local regions are generally common, this visit attracted unusual attention due to the recent conflict with the Ministry of Justice and remarks made during the National Assembly's audit about "serving the people after retirement." In particular, the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office is the prosecution office investigating the "early shutdown of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant" case. This case centers on allegations that the government downplayed the economic feasibility of Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 and destroyed related documents. Inside and outside the prosecution, there are talks that the success or failure of this investigation could be a decisive move for Prosecutor General Yoon.

The head of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office is Chief Prosecutor Lee Doo-bong, one of Prosecutor General Yoon's close associates. The Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, led by Chief Prosecutor Lee, recently assigned the early shutdown of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant case to the 5th Criminal Division. The head of this division is Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee Sang-hyun. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee is considered the youngest member of Yoon Seok-yeol's team and worked closely with Prosecutor General Yoon in 2013 on the investigation team for the National Intelligence Service's interference in the presidential election. He is also known for opposing the administration in cases involving ruling party figures, such as the Ulsan mayoral election interference case.

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