Prosecutors' Selection for the Corruption Investigation Office... Personnel Committee Makes Final Decision Based on 'Interview Ranking'

Second Personnel Committee Meeting Held Today from 10 AM... Deputy Chief Prosecutor Interview Next Week

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The final pool of candidates for the rank-and-file prosecutors at the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (Gong-su-cheo) is being narrowed down. The personnel to be recommended to the President through the Personnel Committee will be selected, and Gong-su-cheo has already assigned comprehensive scores based on interviews and collected information to rank the candidates, so a final decision is likely to be made as early as today.

According to Gong-su-cheo on the 26th, the second meeting of the Personnel Committee will be held from 10 a.m. at the Government Complex Gwacheon. Gong-su-cheo conducted interviews over a week starting from the 17th for 172 applicants who passed the document screening. These are the remaining candidates after excluding those disqualified from the 193 applicants who applied for the selection of 19 rank-and-file prosecutors.

According to the Gong-su-cheo Act, Gong-su-cheo prosecutors are finally appointed by the President upon recommendation by the Personnel Committee. The Personnel Committee resolves the recommendation of prosecutors by majority vote, and the number of recommended candidates must be within twice the number of planned appointments.

Attending the Personnel Committee meeting today are Kim Jin-wook, Chief of Gong-su-cheo; Yeo Woon-guk, Deputy Chief of Gong-su-cheo; ruling party recommended members lawyers Na Ki-ju and Oh Young-jung; opposition party recommended members lawyers Yoo Il-jun and Kim Young-jong; and Professor Lee Young-joo of Seoul National University, appointed by the Chief.

To expedite the resolution, Gong-su-cheo has assigned scores by synthesizing information from the interview process and personnel data on the applicants. Earlier, Chief Kim also explained right after the first Personnel Committee meeting, "The Personnel Committee cannot review all candidates," but added, "It seems possible to raise candidates by a certain multiple and allow committee members to add candidates."

Gong-su-cheo plans to complete the final selection of the rank-and-file prosecutor candidates as early as today and immediately begin the selection process for senior prosecutors. Interviews for selecting four senior prosecutors are scheduled to be held over two days starting from the 30th, and the final candidates will be recommended at the third Personnel Committee meeting on the 2nd of next month.

Once the prosecutor selection is completed, internal discussions will begin to initiate the first investigations. Chief Kim has repeatedly announced at official events that investigations will start in April, and it is known that about 650 cases have been received since Gong-su-cheo's launch until recently.

However, there are variables. The first hurdle is the 'tripartite consultative body' meeting with the prosecution and police scheduled for the 29th. Although it is the first meeting, the standards for case transfer between Gong-su-cheo and the prosecution and police under the Gong-su-cheo Act will inevitably be a major topic, so significant differences in opinions are likely to emerge.

In fact, the Gong-su-cheo Act stipulates that the Chief of Gong-su-cheo ▲ may request transfer of overlapping investigations by other investigative agencies considering the progress and fairness controversies of the investigation (Article 24, Paragraph 1), and ▲ may transfer cases to other investigative agencies depending on the suspect, victim, content, and scale of the case (Article 24, Paragraph 3).

However, the legal community has pointed out that these transfer standards are abstract and unclear, making arbitrary operation by Gong-su-cheo inevitable. Previously, Gong-su-cheo and the prosecution engaged in a tense standoff over the transfer standards of the case involving Lee Seong-yoon, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, who was suspected of exerting pressure on the investigation into the illegal travel ban of former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui, for this very reason.

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