Kim Seong-moon, Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Human Rights Investigation Policy Officer at the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (Gong-su-cheo), who resigned last month, directly criticized the Gong-su-cheo leadership, stating, "An organization that ignores internal critical opinions is not a healthy organization."
According to the legal community on the 22nd, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Kim revealed this in his resignation message titled "Leaving Gong-su-cheo," which he sent to employees via email on the 19th.
He confessed, "During my time at Gong-su-cheo, my body was the most comfortable in my public service career, but my mind was the most uncomfortable."
He continued, "I have expressed opinions different from those of the court-affiliated executives regarding the establishment of relationships with other investigative agencies, perspectives on critical media and the National Assembly, and response directions," adding, "In executive meetings where phrases like 'Gong-su-cheo is the control tower of investigative agencies' and 'The prosecution is colluding with some media to kill Gong-su-cheo' were frequently exchanged, there was little room for my differing opinions to be accepted."
He added, "It was difficult to understand the attitude that seemed to ignore or antagonize other agencies."
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Kim further stated, "Around the summer of 2022, when prosecutors and investigators were consecutively expressing their intention to resign, I proposed deriving improvement measures through sincere discussions, but instead, I heard criticisms implying that 'those who resign are irresponsible,'" and claimed, "Some even called my critical attitude 'internal sabotage.'"
Regarding the atmosphere that emphasized only investigative achievements, he said, "I find it hard to agree with the perception that only plausible investigative results will solve all problems," emphasizing, "In the current situation where the Gong-su-cheo Act narrowly defines the crimes subject to investigation, hastily emphasizing only investigative achievements could rather cause many problems."
He also pointed out, "Whenever articles about Gong-su-cheo are published, there are claims that 'security is weak,' but linking reports unrelated to confidential matters such as investigations and work to security is inappropriate," and added, "If there is critical reporting, one should first examine whether their own words and actions are problematic."
Kim, who was commissioned as a prosecutor at Suwon District Prosecutors' Office in 2000, served as a Judicial Research and Training Institute professor, head of the Foreign Affairs Division at Busan District Prosecutors' Office, and head of the trial division at Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office, before working as a lawyer from 2017. In 2021, he was appointed as the head of Investigation Division 2 at Gong-su-cheo and investigated the allegations of unfair special recruitment involving Cho Hee-yeon, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent, the "first case" of Gong-su-cheo, requesting the prosecution to indict. Since October last year, he has served as the Human Rights Investigation Policy Officer.
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