Prosecutor Selection for the Corruption Investigation Office Completed... Next Week, Chief Prosecutor List to Be Sent to the Blue House

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (HCIC) has completed the recommendation of candidates for ordinary prosecutors to be appointed by the President. The interviews for chief prosecutors and the Personnel Committee review are scheduled for next week, and there is a possibility that President Moon Jae-in will make appointments for both ordinary and chief prosecutors at once.

According to the HCIC on the 27th, the final list of ordinary prosecutor candidates confirmed at the second Personnel Committee meeting the previous day will be forwarded to the Blue House through the Ministry of Personnel Management.

Earlier, the HCIC conducted interviews over a week starting from the 17th for 172 applicants who passed the document screening. This number excludes those disqualified among the 193 applicants competing for the 19 ordinary prosecutor positions.

According to the HCIC Act, HCIC prosecutors are finally appointed by the President upon recommendation by the Personnel Committee. The Committee resolves prosecutor recommendations by majority vote, and the number of recommended candidates must be within twice the number of planned appointments. The Committee includes Kim Jin-wook, HCIC Chief, Yeo Woon-guk, HCIC Deputy Chief, ruling party recommended lawyers Na Ki-ju and Oh Young-jung, opposition party recommended 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, the HCIC compiled scores based on the interview process and personnel information of the applicants. After the first Personnel Committee meeting, Chief Kim also explained, "The Committee cannot review all candidates," but added, "It would be fine to submit candidates within a certain multiple and allow Committee members to add candidates."

With the ordinary prosecutor selection process virtually complete, the HCIC plans to immediately begin the chief prosecutor selection process. Interviews for selecting four chief prosecutors are scheduled to be held over two days starting on the 30th, and the final candidates will be recommended at the third Personnel Committee meeting on the 2nd of next month.

Once all prosecutor selections are completed, internal discussions will commence to initiate the first investigations. Chief Kim has repeatedly announced at official events the intention to start investigations in April, and it is known that over 650 cases have been received since the HCIC's launch.

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 transfers between the HCIC and prosecution/police under the HCIC Act will inevitably be a major topic, making it highly likely that differences in opinion will become apparent.

In fact, the HCIC Act stipulates that the HCIC Chief ▲ 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 criticized these transfer standards as abstract and unclear, making arbitrary operation by the HCIC inevitable. Previously, the HCIC and 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 Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui, for similar reasons.

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