[Editorial]Anxiety About Shin Seung-Nam Set-Up

After long turns and twists, Supreme Prosecutor General Shin Seung-Nam set up his team. The Ministry of Justice announced yesterday the new personnel appointments of the Supreme Prosecutors Office led by a new Prosecutor General Shin Seung-Nam, who had been inaugurated on May 26. The announcement was released while controversies continued after Ahn Dong-Soo, the former Justice Minister, had been replaced, after only 43 hours in his office, due to the criticisms on the so-called `loyal document.`

National concern has focused on the appointment of the new Prosecutor General because the local governmental elections and the next Presidential election are scheduled in his term. To appoint Mr. Shin, who is from the Cholla province (Honam area), President Kim Dae-Jung had artificially changed the Justice minister to Mr. Ahn to avoid the criticism on the regional preponderance. Ahn`s appointment, however, brought about a severe controversy on the `loyal document.`

Reflecting on the disputes, President Kim emphasized the strict neutrality of the Supreme Prosecutors Office at the appointment ceremony on May 26, ``The Supreme Prosecutors Office should not be influenced by the politics and other interventions and it must not misuse the power of the Prosecutors Office.`` New Prosecutors General also promised ``right and fair job of the Public Prosecutors Office.``

For the right and fair job of the Supreme Prosecutors Office, the political neutrality is crucial. And the political neutrality is rooted in the right and fair human management.

However, the judicial circles analyzed that the reshuffling of the Prosecutors Offices intensified the regional preponderance. Even though the Justice Ministry appointed the director of the Prosecutors Bureau and the head of the Central Investigation Department among the persons from the non-Cholla provinces, Honam persons in general have moved forward to the frontlines.

While Honam persons have taken over the core investigation lines, including the director general of the National Intelligence Service, the commissioner of the National Tax Service, the commissioner general of the National Police Agency, and the Prosecutor General, Honam persons take, by the recent appointment, Chief Public Prosecutor of the Seoul High Public Prosecutor`s Office, Chief of the Public security department of the Supreme Prosecutor`s Office and 3 more Chief Prosecutors among 6 of them. It is questionable if the Prosecutor`s Office would accept these appointments as fair management.

Korean Bar Association`s letter to the new Prosecutor General to urge his strict neutrality timely represented the increasing anxiety of people about the Shin`s Supreme Prosecutor`s Office.

It can not be over-emphasized that the Prosecutor`s Office has to always side with the people not with the government. Only then its authority may be supported by the people. The shameful `clothes lobby incident` and `the protests of prosecutors Shim Jae-Ryun and Lee Jong-Wang` clearly guides which way the Prosecutor`s Office has to direct. ``The right and fair job of the Prosecutor`s Office`` will be implemented only by the actual practices not by a rhetoric.