Prosecutors under Former Minister Sent to Less Important Positions

The Ministry of Justice transferred 390 mid-level prosecutors on April 18, appointing Hwang Hee-chul, a leader of policy planning department of the Justice Ministry, Hwang Gyeo-ahn, a prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office, and Park Han-chul, second deputy general of the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office (DPO) as the first, second, and third deputy generals of the Seoul Central DPO, respectively.

The ministry chose Min Yoo-tae, a deputy general of the Goyang District Prosecutor’s Office, as an investigation planning officer of the central investigation department in the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office (SPO), Choi Gyo-il, the first criminal department director of Busan DPO, as a scientific investigation officer in SPO, Cho Geun-ho, a deputy general of the Daegu DPO, as Criminal Information Planning officer of the central investigation department in the SPO and Kim Hak-ei, the chief prosecutor of Tongyoung DPO, as the public security planning officer.

The ministry appointed the first deputy director of central investigation in SPO Yoo Jae-man as the first special investigation director of Seoul Central DPO, fifth criminal investigation director of Seoul Western DPO Kim Kyung-soo as the second special investigation director of Seoul Central DPO, and second special investigation deputy director of SPO Hong Man-pyo as the third special investigation director of Seoul Central DPO.

It transferred Choi Jae-kyung from the fourth criminal investigation director of Suwon DPO and Oh Gwang-su from special investigation director of Incheon DPO to the first and second directors of central investigation department of SPO, respectively.

Transfers that place high value on position and rank are generally predicted not to cause much noise.

However, some point out that many of the 13th class of graduates from the Judicial Research and Training Center, or the first generation of extended successful applicants for the state bar exam, are seated in the important positions, putting a strain on the personnel management system. The number of graduates of the 13th class of the center is 46, more than three times the number of the class above them. This has made it difficult for the Justice Ministry to transfer prosecutors.

Second special investigation director of Seoul Central DPO Nam Gi-chun, who led the investigation on the illegal presidential election funds as the first director of central investigation department in the SPO, was transferred and will be the prosecutor general of Susan DPO.

The prosecutors who were selected by former Minister of Justice Gang Geum-sil were sent to sinecures. Kim Tae-hee, a deputy general of Seongnam DPO and Yoo Jae-woo, a prosecutor general of Gimcheon DPO, are two examples. They were sent to less important prosecutors of Busan SPO and Seoul SPO.

On April 4, the resignation of the prosecutor general of Seongnam DPO Park Man, who was excluded from the list of promotion, was accepted.

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