Dong-soo Han, head of the prosecution at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. Reporter Woo Sang-jo
As President Moon Jae-in immediately accepts Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol’s appreciation on the 4th, attention is focused on who will be appointed by the next Prosecutor General. Outside the prosecution, Lee Seong-yoon (59/23), Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office, Cho Nam-gwan (56/24), Deputy Chief of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, and Kim Oh-soo (58/20), former vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, are mentioned as candidates. The chief prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (55, 24th Judicial Research and Training Institute), who is investigating the suspicion of manipulating witnesses at the trial of former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook, is also on the rise, as the prosecutor General Lee, a junior at Kyunghee University, is likely to be prosecuted for Kim Hak’s case.
President Moon accepted it around 3 pm on the 4th, an hour after Yoon expressed his appreciation. An official at the Blue House said, “The (President Yoon) resignation has been received by the Ministry of Justice,” and said, “The repair-related procedure will proceed according to the administrative procedure in the future.” When the administrative procedure of’receiving the resignation’ is completed, Yun officially resigns from the post of prosecutor general. I decided not to do this separately.
The Blue House immediately began work on the appointment of the next president-elect. An official from the Blue House only said, “We will follow the relevant procedures prescribed by the law” regarding the selection of a successor. According to the Prosecutors’ Office Act, the Minister of Justice must make a request to the President after a procedure for recommending three or more members of the Prosecutor General Candidate Recommendation Committee.
Possibility of’Prosecution of Lee Seong-yoon’ quickly emerged as a substitute for Handong-soo
As the candidate for the next prosecutor general, first, the prosecutor’s chief Han Dong-soo is emerging prominently. A former judge and lawyer, former Minister of Justice Cho Kook, proposed an appointment to the Blue House just before the resignation, and took the position of chief prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
Although Han is the chief of staff of the prosecutor general, he is a person who publicly voiced criticism by setting up an angle with Yun, who led the investigation into the family of former Minister Cho Kook. In particular, Director Han is the one who caused controversy by obtaining the controversial “Judge’s Investigation Suspicion” document through a Buddhist statue’s channel and returning it to the Ministry of Justice as a reference material for the investigation. In addition, the case was inspected by former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook through the prosecution policy researcher Im Eun-jeong, the prosecutor’s office of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, without receiving approval for the case of Yoon’s case.
If President Moon appoints a manager as the next president, the first outside prosecutor’s office in history will serve as president. According to the current prosecutors’ office law, the prosecutor general can appoint not only prosecutors with more than 15 years of experience, but also judges and lawyers.
Lee Seong-yoon, Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office. yunhap news
The reason why Han’s prestigious theory has risen rapidly is that there is a possibility that the qualifications for recommending candidates for Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon, who have been ranked first for the next prosecutor general, may be deprived. Prosecutor Lee is currently the subject of investigation on charges of neglecting the illegal departure ban case against Kim Hak’s former Vice Minister of Justice. It is observed that the Blue House will be burdensome to make a decision to the president in a situation where the possibility of prosecution is high if the issue of repatriation of the high-ranking officials criminal investigation agency (aircraft agency) is cleared up.
From the perspective of the passport, there is also an evaluation that Lee has pushed for various investigations against the people around President Yoon, but has not shown any achievements so far. There is also a fatal weakness that the organizational leadership has been lost even within the central district due to the successive pro-government-oriented investigations. However, there is a view that there is a possibility that President Moon will appoint Lee District Prosecutor, a junior at Kyung Hee University’s law school, taking into account the role of a “shield” until after retirement.
If the prosecutor general with pro-government tendencies is appointed, it is highly likely that the nuclear power plant, illegal withdrawal cases, and cases involving the Blue House Ulsan elections, allegedly related to the current regime, are highly likely to be obsolete.
Public Opinion Supporting Deputy Chief Prosecutor Nam-gwan Cho
Nam-gwan Cho, Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. yunhap news
Inside the prosecution, there is an atmosphere in which Deputy Chief Prosecutor Nam-gwan Cho is supported as the next president. Deputy Deputy Minister Cho, Mi-ae Choo, at the time of the former Minister of Justice, served as the Prosecutor’s Office at the Ministry of Justice, and was initially evaluated as a pro-government propensity. However, in the disciplinary phase of President Yoon, he asked for “withdrawal from the exclusion measure” and rebelled against Minister Chu. Therefore, there is a view that it will be difficult to receive the final choice as President Moon’s last prosecutor-general.
In addition, former Vice Minister Kim Oh-soo, who worked with former Ministers Park Sang-guk, Cho Kook, and Chu Mi-ae, and Shim Jae-cheol, the Southern District Prosecutor’s Officer, who played’five roles per person’ such as a reporter and a disciplinary committee member during the disciplinary process of President Yoon are also mentioned. The possibility of a third person being appointed cannot be ruled out.
An official of the prosecution predicted, “Because the wave of resignation of President Yoon Seok-yeol is large, no matter who President Moon nominates, there is a possibility of being criticized, so we will not be in a hurry to do the appointment.”
Reporters Kang Kwang-woo and Jung Yu-jin [email protected]
