[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol visited the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office and District Prosecutors' Office on the 29th, stating, "I came to see how the prosecution family is working and to listen to their difficulties."
Before entering the Daejeon Prosecutors' Office building in Seo-gu, Daejeon, in the afternoon, Prosecutor General Yoon said, "As the Prosecutor General, I want to directly observe how the Daejeon prosecution family is working, listen to their difficulties, and also encourage them." When asked by reporters about his thoughts on Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae's exercise of investigative command and inspection orders, he did not respond and immediately entered the building.
Prosecutor General Yoon then moved to the adjacent Daejeon Court Complex to pay a courtesy visit to Kim Kwang-tae, Chief Judge of the Daejeon High Court, and returned to the prosecutors' office to hold a staff meeting on prosecutorial reform for about an hour and a half. About ten people, including prosecutors and investigators, attended the meeting, where Yoon mainly listened to the staff's opinions on prosecutorial reform.
Regarding the enforcement of the revised Criminal Procedure Act scheduled for January next year, Yoon urged, "All members of the prosecution should pool their wisdom to do their best to prevent public inconvenience that may arise from changes in the criminal justice system." He added, "The vision and goal of prosecutorial reform is to guarantee fairness and equality in the process of criminal law enforcement," and emphasized, "To ensure human rights and the right to defense, strictly uphold the principles of non-detention and voluntary investigation, and lead the reform of criminal law enforcement by reorganizing the investigative system into a trial-centered investigation structure."
This visit to Daejeon is the first in three years and five months since Yoon was appointed head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in May 2017. At that time, Yoon, who was a prosecutor at the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office, was promoted and appointed as head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office with the Blue House's evaluation that he was "the right person to smoothly carry out additional investigations and maintain prosecutions related to the Choi Soon-sil gate." After taking office as Prosecutor General in July last year, he resumed local visits on this day, which had been temporarily suspended since February to prevent the spread of COVID-19 following visits to Busan and Gwangju.
Visits by the Prosecutor General to regions are generally common. However, this visit attracted unusual attention due to recent conflicts with the Ministry of Justice and remarks about "serving the people after retirement" during the National Assembly audit. In particular, the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office is the prosecution office investigating the "early shutdown of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant" case. One of Yoon's close aides, District Prosecutor Lee Doo-bong, is the head.
The Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant early shutdown case centers on allegations that the government downplayed the economic feasibility of Wolseong Unit 1 and destroyed related documents. After the Board of Audit and Inspection released its audit results with these findings, opposition parties filed complaints with the prosecution against former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Baek Woon-kyu and others on charges including abuse of power. Inside and outside the prosecution, there is talk that this investigation could be a decisive move for Prosecutor General Yoon, who is under pressure to resign from the ruling party.
The Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office recently assigned this case to the 5th Criminal Division. The head of the 5th Criminal Division is Chief Prosecutor Lee Sang-hyun, who worked with Yoon in 2013 on the investigation team for the National Intelligence Service's interference in the presidential election. He is classified as part of the Yoon Seok-yeol faction and is known for opposing the administration in cases involving ruling party figures, such as the Ulsan mayoral election interference allegations.
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