'Yoon Disciplinary Lead' Lee Jong-geun, Research Fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, Resigns

Prosecutors [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Lee Jong-geun, a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice (54, Judicial Research Institute class 28), who clashed with President Yoon Seok-yeol during the Moon Jae-in administration, has expressed his intention to resign.

According to the legal community on the 1st, Prosecutor Lee recently submitted his resignation to the Ministry of Justice.

Prosecutor Lee was commissioned as a prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office in 1999 and served as head of the Criminal Division 3 at the Ulsan District Prosecutors' Office and head of the Criminal Division 4 at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office. After the launch of the Moon Jae-in administration, he served as policy advisor to the Minister of Justice, deputy chief prosecutor of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, deputy head of the Ministry of Justice's Prosecution Reform Promotion Support Group, and first deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office before being promoted to chief prosecutor in 2020.

While serving as head of the Criminal Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, he led the disciplinary action against then Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol together with his wife, Park Eun-jung, then the Ministry of Justice's Inspection Officer (51, Judicial Research Institute class 29), earning the nickname "pro-government prosecutor." Shortly after President Yoon's inauguration, in the personnel reshuffle of May last year, he was relegated to a sidelined position as a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute.