Change of a Minister to Appoint a Prosecutor General

Shin Seung-Nam, Deputy Prosecutor General, has been designated as the successor of Park Soon-Yong, the Prosecutor General, whose term of the office expires on 25th.

Because the new prosecutor general’s term is matched with the major political matters such as next year’s local election and the presidential poll, the new appointment has become the cynosure of all Korean people.

An official at Cheog Wa Dae explained the background of the appointment ``His various experiences in the prosecutors office such as personal administration, planning, and investigation and his propulsive force have been highly estimated.`` But there seems not to be many people who believe in that. It should be understood that the appointment is closely related with President Kim Dae-Jung’s second half plan to manage the state affairs.

As he designated Shin, who is from South Jeolla Province, as a new prosecutor general, the president replaced the justice minister to avoid the criticism of ``South Jeolla Province monopoly.`` Kim Jung-Kil who also came from South Jeolla Province has been replaced by Ahn Dong-Soo who is from South Chungcheong Province. It seems to be logical at the first glance but, it is an unreasonable appointment that dose not make sense. President Kim had replaced a justice minister who had been in charge of the whole prosecutors office in order to select a certain person.

In addition, the new justice minister’s credential, as one who is responsible for fair law administration, has been questioned. Although Ahn had worked as a prosecutor for short period, people have questioned his leadership as a justice minister citing his unsuccessful bid as a branch-chair of the Democratic Party for a seat in the National Assembly for three times in a row. Especially, people are skeptical about how Ahn would manage all matters seeing that the new prosecutor general has the ``actual power.``

The newly designated prosecutor general Shin cannot avoid the words of denunciation that he has been appointed by the political authority’s absolute need. It is already a situation in which major head positions, such as National Intelligence Service, National Tax Service, and National Policy Agency, have been occupied by those who came from South Jeolla Province. Therefore, the appointment of Shin as a prosecutor general, a core position, means the absolute monopolization of power-line is achieved by those from South Jeolla Province. It is interesting to see how the power-line would deal with the confronting upcoming major political schedules.

The most urgent priority for the prosecutors office is to regain public trust. As the prosecutor’s office handled the clothes lobby case, the office seemed to be subservient to the authority. Hence, they have lost the public trust. To make matters worse, Shin is the one who was a subject of the impeachment regarding the partial investigation for the election law violation which occurred during the 16th general election.

Whether the new prosecutor general can change the ill image of the office or not, we are to watch the process of managing staff appointment that has been scheduled for this weekend or early next week.