[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol will visit Gwangju on the 20th.
Currently carrying out a nationwide inspection schedule, Prosecutor General Yoon will visit the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office and the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, his second stop after Busan, to meet with local prosecution executives. Park Sung-jin, Chief Prosecutor of Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office, Moon Chan-seok, Chief Prosecutor of Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, along with Park Chan-ho, Chief Prosecutor of Jeju District Prosecutors' Office, and Noh Jeong-yeon, Chief Prosecutor of Jeonju District Prosecutors' Office, who are under the jurisdiction of Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office, are expected to welcome Prosecutor General Yoon.
Amid nationwide unrest due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), Prosecutor General Yoon will proceed with the Gwangju visit as planned. The nationwide prosecutors' chiefs meeting, scheduled to be presided over by Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae on the 21st for COVID-19 response, has been tentatively postponed.
Attention is focused on Prosecutor General Yoon's remarks during this visit. Previously, during his visit to Busan, Yoon expressed the view that "investigation and prosecution are one entity," emphasizing that the investigation and prosecution by prosecutors cannot be separated. It is anticipated what stance he will take in Gwangju.
After meeting with executives in Gwangju, Prosecutor General Yoon plans to communicate with frontline prosecutors through a closed-door staff meeting. Moon Chan-seok, Chief Prosecutor of Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, who will attend Yoon's encouragement visit, is a target of the prosecutors' chiefs meeting and has recently attracted attention for his outspoken remarks.
On the 10th, at a meeting of nationwide district prosecutors' chiefs and election-related deputy chief prosecutors, he publicly criticized Lee Sung-yoon, Chief Prosecutor of Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, stating that "refusing the chief prosecutor's orders is unacceptable." This was regarding the issue that although Prosecutor General Yoon ordered the prosecution of Choi Kang-wook, Secretary for Public Discipline at the Blue House, Chief Prosecutor Lee did not approve the prosecution.
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