Daegum Requests Disciplinary Action Against Prosecutor Jin Hye-won for Mocking Kim Keon-hee on SNS... "Do You Know How to Spell Julie?"

In April 2021, ahead of the by-election, Jin Hyewon, then deputy chief prosecutor at the Ansan branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, who was indicted on charges including violation of the National Public Service Act and the Public Official Election Act for posting defamatory comments about opposition candidates on social networking services (SNS), is responding to reporters' questions while attending her first trial on November 5, 2021, at the Western District Court in Mapo-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Disciplinary action has been requested against Jin Hye-won, deputy chief prosecutor of the Busan District Prosecutors' Office (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 34), who sparked controversy by posting a seemingly mocking comment about First Lady Kim Keon-hee, wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, on social networking service (SNS).

According to the legal community on the 3rd, Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok filed a disciplinary request against Prosecutor Jin with the Ministry of Justice the day before. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office has been reviewing whether to file disciplinary action against Prosecutor Jin since last September, when Seoul City Council member Lee Jong-bae submitted a disciplinary request.

The Ministry of Justice plans to hold a disciplinary committee meeting after convening an inspection committee to gather opinions on the severity of the discipline at the request of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and then decide the final level of discipline against Prosecutor Jin through the disciplinary committee's deliberation.

In September last year, Prosecutor Jin posted on her Facebook a past photo of First Lady Kim under the title [Where is the time to Julie?], writing, "I don't know if you know how to spell Julie. I read a post saying that she was indicted by attaching a word (entertainment bar) that never came out, and I thought it was because she was not Julie together."

At the end of the post, Prosecutor Jin wrote 'Prosetitute,' which caused controversy because it is similar in spelling to 'prostitute,' meaning a sex worker. Prosecutor Jin reportedly explained that 'Prosetitute' is a compound of 'prosecutor,' meaning a prosecutor, and 'institute,' meaning an organization, and was used to mean 'prosecutorial organization.'

When the controversy arose, Prosecutor Jin changed the post to private and then deleted it, but former Saenuri Party lawmaker Jeon Yeo-ok captured and posted the content on her blog, spreading the controversy further.

In response, Seoul City Council member Lee Jong-bae of the People Power Party and civic groups submitted a disciplinary request to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, stating that "Prosecutor Jin violated the obligation of political neutrality and damaged the dignity and prestige as a prosecutor."

In the legal community, there is speculation that Prosecutor Jin will receive a severe disciplinary action, given her previous record of being disciplined for SNS posts.

Prosecutor Jin was previously disciplined with a one-month suspension by the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutor Disciplinary Committee in March last year for secondary harm to the victim of the late Park Won-soon, former mayor of Seoul, in a sexual harassment case.

Also, in April 2021, ahead of the by-elections, Prosecutor Jin posted on her Facebook about Oh Se-hoon, then mayoral candidate of Seoul from the People Power Party, and Park Hyung-joon, mayoral candidate of Busan, and is currently on trial for violating the National Public Officials Act and the Public Official Election Act.

Under the Prosecutor Disciplinary Act, the types of discipline that can be imposed on prosecutors include dismissal and removal, suspension of duties without pay for a period of one to six months, suspension with no pay, reduction of salary by up to one-third for a period of one month to one year, and reprimand to make the prosecutor reflect on the wrongdoing while continuing to perform duties, totaling five types.

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