Contribution to the Legal Newspaper on the 30th: 'Political Bias and Personnel Arbitrary Actions'
A current senior prosecutor at the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Office (Hugo) has come forward through a media article to expose political bias and personnel irregularities within the office.
Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk alleged that the office directed investigations toward predetermined conclusions in politically sensitive cases related to President Yoon Seok-yeol.
Kim Myung-seok, Human Rights Investigation Policy Officer (Chief Prosecutor) at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. Photo by Legal News
Chief Kim Jin-wook has ordered an internal inspection regarding the senior prosecutor. Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk has stated his intention to file a complaint against the prosecutor for defamation by false statements and leaking official secrets in his personal capacity.
On the 30th, Kim Myung-seok, Hugo’s Human Rights and Investigation Policy Officer (Senior Prosecutor), contributed a column titled “Political Bias and Personnel Irregularities” to the Legal Times’ “Thursday Column by Senior Prosecutor Kim Myung-seok,” stating, “Having served 17 years as a prosecutor and 5 years as a lawyer, I was appointed as a senior prosecutor at Hugo in October 2022. Reflecting on my experience so far, only two words come to mind: political bias and personnel irregularities.”
He said, “Earlier this year, the prosecution investigated two senior prosecutors for abuse of authority in the ‘Prosecutor General’s Removal Inspection Suspicion’ case and transferred it to Hugo. Despite the case’s high social sensitivity, the deputy chief instructed me to assign the investigation to a young prosecutor A, who had no investigative experience. It was strange. Shortly after, the deputy chief called me and prosecutor A, saying, ‘What kind of abuse of authority is this?’ and handed prosecutor A precedents and materials denying the establishment of abuse of authority, which he had pre-researched, and ordered the preparation of a review report. Despite 17 years as a prosecutor, I was shocked.”
The case Kim referred to, in which Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk allegedly ordered a review report denying the establishment of abuse of authority, involved former Seoul Central District Prosecutor General Lee Seong-yoon and former Ministry of Justice Inspection Officer Park Eun-jung, who were considered pro-government prosecutors during the Moon Jae-in administration. They were investigated following accusations by civic groups that the Ministry of Justice had violated procedures in inspecting then-Prosecutor General Yoon.
Kim also said, “This happened before I was appointed. In the ‘Prosecutor General’s Judge Surveillance Document’ case, when negative opinions were given about whether to open an investigation, the case was repeatedly reviewed by different prosecutors. Eventually, pressure was applied to order an investigation, which I thought was a joke.”
This refers to reports from another Hugo official that Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk pressured the opening of an investigation into the ‘Judge Surveillance Document’ case, which former Justice Minister Chu Mi-ae cited as grounds for disciplining President Yoon when he was Prosecutor General, despite opposition from several prosecutors.
Kim said, “I have not investigated either of these two cases, so I do not know whether a crime was established, and I have no objections to any conclusions reached. However, it was astonishing that conclusions were predetermined and actions were taken to align with those conclusions before investigations even began.”
Kim sharply criticized Hugo’s personnel management.
He said, “Hugo members do not feel like public officials but like laborers in a job market. No one knows when or where they will be transferred or what work they will be assigned.”
He added, “Sometimes when you come to work, personnel orders are announced after leaving the previous day, and such announcements occur frequently and unpredictably. People are pulled en masse from one department to another, then moved again.”
He said, “Even in private companies, such practices would be considered improper, but I have never imagined such unprincipled and unstandardized personnel moves in a public service organization. It is truly astonishing.”
Kim pointed out that both Chief Kim and Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk are former judges with no investigative experience, making it difficult for them to properly guide investigations. He also criticized Chief Kim’s remarks at the National Assembly audit as a “disconnected rhetoric.”
He said, “The problems at Hugo seem to go beyond this. People who quit after being ordinary prosecutors and worked as lawyers come back as senior prosecutors to lead investigations. They have little investigative experience and no leadership experience, so things go off track and become chaotic.”
He added, “The entire organization spends a year trying to arrest a single police officer, burning down the proverbial straw hut. During investigations, requests to discipline defense attorneys are dismissed, arrest warrants for suspects are rejected due to suicide concerns, and absurd incidents that would never happen in the prosecution occur. The chief and deputy chief, who should guide the direction, lack experience but think they are doing well. The continuous rejection of warrants is due to these reasons. It is a total crisis.”
Kim said, “Those who have endured such conditions for three years at Hugo suffer mentally and many have already resigned. Yet, at the National Assembly audit, hearing rhetoric like ‘investigations require unity between superiors and subordinates’ is simply astonishing.”
Kim passed the 40th Judicial Examination in 1998 and completed the 30th Judicial Research and Training Institute. He began his career as a prosecutor at Changwon District Prosecutors’ Office in 2001 and served at Nonsan Branch of Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office, Cheongju District Prosecutors’ Office, Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office, Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office, Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, and Uijeongbu District Prosecutors’ Office, mainly investigating organized crime and drug cases in the violent crimes division.
He was promoted to deputy chief prosecutor at Uijeongbu District Prosecutors’ Office in 2015, served as deputy chief at Seongnam Branch of Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office in 2016, and left the prosecution in 2017. After working as a lawyer, he was appointed senior prosecutor at Hugo in October last year, serving as head of Investigation Division 1, and moved to Human Rights and Investigation Policy Officer in October this year.
From the left, Kim Jin-wook, Chief of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, and Yeo Woon-guk, Deputy Chief of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.
On the afternoon of the 29th, Hugo announced to the press, “Chief Kim has instructed the Human Rights Inspector to conduct an internal inspection regarding Senior Prosecutor Kim’s violation of regulations by publishing the article in the Legal Times without reporting it to the chief.”
Hugo explained that despite the ethical regulations requiring prosecutors to report to the chief in advance when publishing opinions related to their duties using their prosecutor title, Senior Prosecutor Kim did not report the article.
Hugo stated, “If it is confirmed that Senior Prosecutor Kim violated relevant laws and regulations procedurally or substantively during the article’s publication, strict measures including referral to the disciplinary committee will be taken.”
Meanwhile, Hugo announced, “Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk judged that Senior Prosecutor Kim defamed him by publishing false information and leaked official secrets, and decided to file a complaint against him with another investigative agency on the 30th.”
Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk explained the background for filing the complaint, saying, “As one of the persons responsible for investigation and operation at Hugo, I deeply regret not preventing the misconduct of an organization member. However, it is highly inappropriate to claim unverified hearsay or baseless content as facts without minimal verification, leak official secrets, damage the reputation of individuals and the institution, and lower morale. Therefore, I decided to file a criminal complaint.”
Chief Kim and Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk expressed, “We deeply apologize for causing public concern ahead of our term expiration in January next year. We believe that strictly responding to unacceptable conduct as public officials and restoring discipline is our final duty to the public.”
Chief Kim’s term expires on January 20 next year, and Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk’s term expires on January 28 next year.
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