"Resignation Demand for Coming-Out Test" 청원 Reaches 200,000 Supporters in Two Days

A petition titled "Resign the Coming-Out Prosecutor" posted on the Blue House National Petition Board on the 30th of last month. / Photo by Blue House National Petition Board capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Joo-hee] As tensions escalate with Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and prosecutors exchanging public criticisms over prosecutorial reform, a petition on the Blue House's national petition board calling for the acceptance of resignations from prosecutors who criticized Minister Choo has garnered over 200,000 supporters within two days.

On the 30th of last month, a petition titled "Accept the Resignations of Coming-Out Prosecutors" was posted on the Blue House national petition board. As of 6:40 AM on the 2nd, the petition had received approximately 272,576 endorsements, meeting the official response criteria of the Blue House.

The petitioner stated, "A politician as chief prosecutor is ruining the prosecution by covering it with politics," and added, "The political prosecutors, who should be reflecting and restraining themselves, have now openly started engaging in politics."

They continued, "During an inspection, visiting Daejeon to engage in politics, these political prosecutors who follow him are using the media to obstruct prosecutorial reform," and demanded, "Without any voice of self-reflection, please accept the resignations of the prosecutors who are coming out for the political chief prosecutor. That is the beginning of prosecutorial reform."

Here, "coming-out prosecutors" refers to prosecutors who publicly criticized Minister Choo, including Lee Hwan-woo (43, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 39), a prosecutor at Jeju District Prosecutors' Office, as well as those who expressed support for Lee's post.

Earlier, on the 28th of last month, Prosecutor Lee posted an article titled "Prosecutorial Reform Has Failed" on the internal prosecution network 'Epross,' criticizing Minister Choo's exercise of investigative command authority, personnel authority, and inspection authority.

In the post, Prosecutor Lee targeted Minister Choo, stating, "I feel that the personnel authority, command authority, and inspection authority are being abused without hiding their purpose and intentions."

In response, Minister Choo replied on her Facebook the next day (29th), saying, "If you come out like this, reform is the only answer," and prosecutors reacted to Minister Choo's public targeting by leaving comments saying, "I also come out."

Choi Jae-man (47, class 36), a prosecutor at Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office, stated on Epross, "I also think, like Prosecutor Lee Hwan-woo, that the current situation where politics intentionally covers the prosecution leaves a bad precedent in our judicial history." The post has received over 200 supportive comments so far.

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