'Opposition to Complete Prosecution Reform' Busan High Prosecutor General Resubmits Resignation "Minimum Courtesy to the People"

Jo Jae-yeon, Chief Prosecutor of Busan High Prosecutors' Office
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Jo Jaeyeon, Chief Prosecutor of Busan High Prosecutors' Office (59, 25th Judicial Research and Training Institute), who had expressed his intention to resign in protest against the so-called 'Complete Prosecution Investigation Reform' law, reiterated his intention to resign despite the Blue House's rejection.

According to the legal community on the 9th, Chief Prosecutor Jo posted a message titled 'Letter of Resignation' on the prosecution's internal network, Epross, stating, "As a public official who has lived on taxpayers' money, I deeply feel responsible for not being able to prevent this situation," and added, "I believe that resigning is the minimum courtesy to the people and the members of the prosecution, and I now wish to leave the prosecution."

He emphasized, "The reason we all tried to block this law with a bleeding heart was because its implementation would cause tremendous confusion and inconvenience to the public, benefiting only criminals while the damage would fall on innocent citizens." He also said, "I believe there will be a calm and wise evaluation from the public."

Furthermore, he appealed, "The fundamental cause is that we failed to provide the public with a firm belief in the fairness and neutrality of prosecution investigations," and added, "Even after this situation is resolved, please join in gathering wisdom on ways to maintain fairness and neutrality so that we will never again receive harsh criticism and misunderstandings from the public."

Chief Prosecutor Jo had expressed his intention to resign along with former Prosecutor General Kim Osu, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Seongjin, and six other senior officials at the level of high prosecutors on the 22nd of last month, after the ruling and opposition parties agreed on the 'Complete Prosecution Investigation Reform' mediation plan proposed by National Assembly Speaker Park Byeongseok. The Blue House accepted former Prosecutor General Kim's resignation on the 3rd but rejected the resignations of other senior officials.

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