Kim Oh-soo "Proposed Separate Investigation Team for Cho Kuk... Did Not Suggest Excluding Yoon Seok-yeol"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] When asked whether Kim Oh-soo, the nominee for Prosecutor General, proposed forming a separate investigation team for former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk during his tenure as Deputy Minister of Justice, he said, "I did say that."

On the 26th, Kim responded to a question from Yoon Han-hong, a member of the People Power Party, who said, "It is said that you proposed creating an investigation team excluding the Prosecutor General during the investigation of former Minister Cho Kuk," and asked, "At that time, you were the Deputy Minister, and Lee Sung-yoon, the head of the Central District Prosecutors' Office, was the Director of the Prosecutor's Office. Who made the proposal?" Kim replied, "It is correct that I said it."

Furthermore, Kim took the opportunity to clarify regarding the exclusion of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol.

Kim explained, "(Representative Yoon) said it was an investigation team excluding former Prosecutor General Yoon, and implied that I had issues with political neutrality, so I had a lot to say."

Kim stated, "That day was the farewell ceremony of former Minister Park Sang-ki and the inauguration ceremony of former Minister Cho Kuk. During the farewell ceremony, I had a conversation for about 30 minutes with a senior official from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office whom I am close to. We discussed that when there are important or difficult investigations at the prosecution, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and the Central District Prosecutors' Office should maintain their functions separately, so in such cases, a separate investigation team is often formed to proceed. So, I suggested how about doing it that way."

He continued, "The senior official asked, 'Then how does the Prosecutor General supervise the investigation?' I replied, 'Regarding that part, since the Prosecutor General is not involved in that matter, he has the authority to supervise the investigation. However, the Prosecutor General can decide how to proceed,' which was the intent of my statement," he emphasized.

He added that he never suggested excluding former Prosecutor General Yoon.

Kim conveyed, "During the Supreme Prosecutors' Office audit, that senior official appeared and also answered that there was no mention of excluding Prosecutor General Yoon among the things I said," he said.

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