Park Beom-gye's First Prosecution Personnel Move Highlights 'Chuseo Line'... More Management Than Change (Comprehensive)

Reflecting Yoon's Term with Less Than Half a Year Left... Lee Sung-yoon Retained, Shim Jae-cheol Appointed as Southern District Prosecutor Chief

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] Park Beom-gye, Minister of Justice, retained Lee Seong-yoon as the Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in his first personnel reshuffle since taking office. Previously, Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol had requested the replacement of Lee, but this was not reflected. Notably, Shim Jae-cheol, Director of the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutor's Office, who was considered a close aide of former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae and led the disciplinary action against Prosecutor General Yoon, was also appointed as Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. In effect, the entire 'Chu Mi-ae faction' has survived.

On the 7th, the Ministry of Justice carried out a personnel reshuffle involving four prosecutors at the level of senior prosecutors at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, effective from the 9th. Considering that Minister Park held two meetings with Prosecutor General Yoon after his inauguration to plan the personnel changes, the scale of the reshuffle was relatively small. With only about five months left in Prosecutor General Yoon's term, the move is interpreted as an attempt to first resolve internal conflicts within the prosecution that arose during Yoon's disciplinary process rather than to implement organizational changes.

First, Lee, who attracted the most attention inside and outside the prosecution, will continue to hold his position. Lee had been appointed as Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in the first reshuffle after former Minister Chu Mi-ae took office in January last year, and a year had passed since then.

After his appointment, Lee was embroiled in controversy over allegedly downplaying and covering up various power corruption cases, including the Optimus case. Prosecutor General Yoon requested Lee's replacement, but it was ultimately not accepted. Lee will continue to oversee investigations into the Optimus case, the alleged collusion between the prosecution and the media, and investigations involving Prosecutor General Yoon's family and close aides.

The positions of Director of the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutor's Office, who oversees prosecution personnel and budget, and Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office were swapped. Lee Jeong-soo, Chief Prosecutor of the Southern District Prosecutors' Office, was appointed as the new Director of the Prosecutor's Office, and Shim Jae-cheol was appointed as Chief Prosecutor of the Southern District Prosecutors' Office.

Lee was assigned as the successor to Park Soon-cheol, then Chief Prosecutor of the Southern District Prosecutors' Office, who suddenly resigned on the morning of the National Assembly inspection of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in October last year. During his tenure, Lee investigated the Lime Asset Management fund fraud case and allegations of lobbying concealment for about three months.

Cho Jong-tae, current Chief Prosecutor of Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office, was appointed as the vacant Director of Planning and Coordination at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Cho served as deputy head of the 'Kim Hak-ui Special Investigation Team' in 2019. In July of the same year, he was promoted to the rank of senior prosecutor upon appointment as Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office, and was appointed Chief Prosecutor of Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office in January last year. Kim Ji-yong, current Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, will take over as Chief Prosecutor of Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office.

Additionally, Han Dong-hoon, who attracted attention, was once again excluded from this reshuffle. Han was excluded from investigative duties due to his involvement in the 'prosecution-media collusion' case.

Lee Doo-bong, Chief Prosecutor of Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, who is leading the investigation into the 'alleged manipulation of the economic feasibility evaluation of Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1,' was also retained. Initially, the legal community expected significant changes in the leadership of the nuclear power plant investigation team, as personnel changes among ordinary prosecutors were minimal last month. However, all were excluded from this senior-level reshuffle, allowing Lee and others to oversee both the investigation and trial of the case.

The legal community views this minor reshuffle as considering the limited remaining term of Prosecutor General Yoon. By moving many other senior prosecutors while retaining Lee and not replacing investigation heads like Lee Doo-bong, who are aligned with the government or ruling party, the Ministry avoids potential criticism and secures justification for a large-scale reshuffle after Yoon's retirement.

Since all so-called 'Chu faction' personnel survived, there is also analysis that conflicts between Minister Park and Prosecutor General Yoon will intensify. In fact, Minister Park met with Prosecutor General Yoon twice on the 2nd and 5th to hear his opinions on personnel matters, but these were not reflected this time. Earlier, Minister Park had clarified that these meetings were for 'opinion listening, not personnel consultation.'

A Ministry of Justice official stated, "With the inauguration of the new Minister of Justice, we conducted some personnel transfers at the senior prosecutor level at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to resolve the vacancy in the Director of Planning and Coordination position and to stabilize the prosecution organization while steadily advancing prosecution reform tasks." He added, "Considering that personnel changes at the senior prosecutor level at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office were conducted three times at six-month intervals over the past year and a half, we maintained the previous personnel policy, minimizing transfers except for filling vacancies and without any promotions to senior prosecutor level."

He continued, "Most chief prosecutors, including those leading major ongoing cases such as the Chief Prosecutors of the Seoul Central and Daejeon District Prosecutors' Offices, were retained to ensure the smooth implementation of newly introduced systems and continuity of work."

(From left) Shim Jae-cheol, Director of the Prosecutor's Office at the Ministry of Justice; Lee Jung-soo, Chief Prosecutor of Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office; Jo Jong-tae, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Seoul High Prosecutors' Office. / Yonhap News and Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office website

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