[Column] Tasks Left by Minister Choo Mi-ae

Seokjin Choi, Head of the Legal Affairs Team

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] During her tenure of just over a year, Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae left several challenges for the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution.

The top priority is, of course, resolving the COVID-19 cluster infection outbreak at Seoul Eastern Detention Center. Preventing additional confirmed cases is urgent, but the aftermath to be managed is also considerable.

Minister Choo maintains the position that there was no problem with the initial response, but multiple instances of poor handling by correctional authorities have already been confirmed, such as failure to separate confirmed cases and primary contacts, and failure to provide masks. Minister Choo was even criminally accused of dereliction of duty by civic groups and the Ministry of Justice labor union, and lawsuits seeking damages against the state have already begun.

Above all, as the top official responsible for correctional administration, it is difficult to avoid responsibility for causing a cluster infection of over 1,000 people by focusing all her attention on disciplining Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl during the critical period when confirmed cases emerged in the apartment-style Eastern Detention Center.

Under the pretext of prosecutorial reform, the prosecution’s investigative power noticeably weakened as special investigation divisions and other investigative units within the prosecution were downsized while criminal and trial divisions were strengthened. In particular, despite concerns from those around her, after Minister Choo abolished the Securities Crime Joint Investigation Unit of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, unprecedented fund fraud cases such as Lime and Optimus surfaced, while cases handled by the prosecution on referral from the Financial Services Commission significantly decreased.

During her tenure, Minister Choo intervened in several investigations through orders for inspection or investigative guidance, but most cases, including the Channel A coercion attempt case and investigations into obstruction of justice involving Prosecutor General Yoon’s mother-in-law and close associates, have not produced the results Minister Choo anticipated or expected and remain unsolved cases.

Rather than ability, personnel appointments based on personal relationships caused division, placing so-called ‘Choo (秋) line’ figures not only in key positions within the Ministry of Justice and major prosecutors’ offices but also in the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office staff who should assist the Prosecutor General, leading to distrust in the fairness of prosecutorial personnel appointments.

In particular, the dishonor of the ‘lawless’ minister, who was twice pointed out by the courts for procedural illegality due to unreasonable inspections and disciplinary requests against Prosecutor General Yoon, seems unlikely to be restored.

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