Preparation unit puts out emergency bids for electrical, fire and construction work just two weeks before launch; nominee for first director of new investigative agency still awaiting confirmation hearing; Justice Ministry vacancy persists, leaving prosecution office also without a chief
Two new criminal justice agencies are set to open their doors Friday when the Prosecutors' Office is formally abolished, but neither the Serious Crime Investigation Agency nor the new Public Prosecution Service has a confirmed leader in place — and the Justice Ministry overseeing the prosecution office has been without a minister as well. South Korea's sweeping overhaul of its criminal justice system is poised to begin in a state of institutional uncertainty.
The Ministry of Interior and Safety's SCIA launch preparation unit put out emergency procurement notices on Sept. 18 and Monday for work on the agency's office environment. The Sept. 18 notices covered electrical and fire-safety construction, while Monday's covered general building work.
Bid openings for each contract are scheduled for Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 — after the SCIA's Friday launch date. A bid opening is the process by which a contracting authority unseals and reviews submitted bids after the submission deadline. Each construction contract carries a 70-day work period, meaning the agency's basic physical infrastructure will not be in place for some time after it opens.
Concerns are also mounting that the SCIA could open without a confirmed director, despite a nominee having been named. The Ministry of Interior and Safety recommended attorney Kim Ji-yong, a former prosecutor, as the inaugural director candidate on Sept. 7. Kim was promoted to deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office — a senior prosecutor-general-level post — in 2020 during the Moon Jae-in administration. After Yoon Suk Yeol took office, Kim was demoted to deputy chief of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office and left the prosecution service in 2023.
Yet with the SCIA's launch days away, no date has been set for Kim's confirmation hearing. Hard-liners within the ruling camp argue that Kim, who opposed stripping prosecutors of their investigative powers while still in office, is out of step with the spirit of prosecution reform. They have pointed to specific cases handled under his chain of command as evidence that he does not align with the reform agenda.
The two cases cited by those hard-liners are the malfeasance assault case involving former prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong and the illegal travel ban case involving former Vice Minister Kim Hak-eui.
The Jeong case stems from the so-called Channel A affair, in which Jeong was indicted on charges of assaulting and injuring Han Dong-hoon — then a senior prosecutor and now an independent lawmaker — during a search and seizure operation. Jeong was convicted at trial but acquitted on appeal, and the Supreme Court finalized his acquittal in 2022.
Choo Mi-ae, former Justice minister and now Gyeonggi Province governor, and other ruling-camp hard-liners claim that Kim, who was serving as deputy chief of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office at the time, was involved in the decision to indict Jeong. Kim maintains that he sided with the investigative team's position that an indictment was unwarranted, and that Jeong was ultimately charged despite his stance. He argues that while he was in the chain of command, he was not the final decision-maker.
The Kim Hak-eui travel ban case involves allegations that officials unlawfully blocked the former vice minister from boarding a flight at Incheon International Airport in 2019. Prosecutors indicted Cha Gyu-geun, then head of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Bureau; prosecutor Lee Gyu-won; and Lee Gwang-cheol, then senior presidential secretary for civil affairs at Cheong Wa Dae. All three were ultimately acquitted by the Supreme Court.
On the Kim Hak-eui case, Kim Ji-yong's camp says that three suspects had already been referred to trial by the time he was involved, that his role was limited to the disposition of former Cheong Wa Dae civil affairs secretary Lee Gwang-cheol, and that he in fact argued against indictment — a position at odds with the investigative team's recommendation.
Ruling-camp critics have labeled Kim a "pro-Yoon prosecutor." Kim has pushed back, noting that while serving as head of the criminal division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office he ordered a reinvestigation into a case involving the mother-in-law of former President Yoon Suk Yeol — overturning non-prosecution decisions by both the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office. He has described such a reversal at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office level as highly unusual. Cheong Wa Dae is conducting additional vetting of Kim's nomination.
The Public Prosecution Service faces a parallel leadership vacuum, starting with the Justice Ministry that oversees it. After former Minister Jeong Seong-ho left office, sitting Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Seung-won was tapped as his successor, but a wave of allegations — including suspicions over lobbying related to a new drug approval — ultimately forced Kim to withdraw. With no minister in place, the prosecution service has not even begun drawing up a shortlist of candidates for its own director.
The existing Prosecutors' Office has itself been without a confirmed chief for more than a year, since then-Prosecutor General Shim Woo-hyun stepped down last July. Deputy prosecutors general at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office have been serving as acting heads in the interim. Koo Ja-hyun, who had led the prosecution service as acting prosecutor general since last November, announced his resignation after the National Assembly passed legislation last July abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigative powers, and he formally departed after the Justice Ministry named a new deputy prosecutor general on Tuesday. Lee Jeong-hyeon, the newly appointed deputy prosecutor general and acting prosecutor general, is expected to also take the helm of the Public Prosecution Service on an interim basis.
bell@heraldcorp.com
