Jinwook Kim: "Up to 12 Former Prosecutors to Be Selected for the Corruption Investigation Office"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Kim Jin-wook, Chief of the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (hereinafter referred to as the Corruption Investigation Office), stated, "The Corruption Investigation Office plans to select as many as 12 prosecutors from the prosecution background, as permitted by law."

On the 29th, Kim said to reporters on his way to the Government Complex Gwacheon, "Although it needs to be reviewed by the personnel committee, when organizing the Corruption Investigation Office prosecutors, we want to supplement by hiring competent and dedicated chief prosecutors with extensive experience in special investigations."

Article 8 of the current Corruption Investigation Office Act stipulates that the total number of prosecutors, including the chief and deputy chief, is 25. Prosecutors from the prosecution cannot exceed half of the total number, and the 12 mentioned by Kim is the maximum allowed by law. Kim explained, "The four deputy chief prosecutors of the Corruption Investigation Office are expected to be candidates at the chief prosecutor level with 15 to 20 years of legal experience," adding, "Deputy Chief Candidate Yeo Woon-guk is from the 23rd Judicial Research and Training Institute class, and raising the class number for the recommendation was also to ensure that experienced individuals apply."

Regarding suspicions that the deleted documents in the public indictment of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 case contained surveillance of opposition groups by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and plans to promote North Korean nuclear power plant construction, Kim said, "I have never heard of such surveillance before, but we will look into it."

In response to a question about another prosecution candidate considered besides Deputy Chief Candidate Yeo Woon-guk, Kim said, "It is not proper to disclose," and added, "We narrowed down the candidates to one former judge and one former prosecutor, conducted verification, and ultimately recommended Candidate Yeo."

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