New Justice Minister Park Seongjae Decides Not to Make 'Prosecutor Personnel Changes' for the Time Being

Extinguishing Urgent Issues Like Organizational Stability and Investigation Delays First

Park Seong-jae, the newly appointed Minister of Justice, is expected not to carry out any prosecutorial personnel reshuffles for the time being. It appears that the focus is on organizational stability.

Park Sung-jae, the newly appointed Minister of Justice, is delivering his inaugural speech at the inauguration ceremony held on the afternoon of the 20th at the Ministry of Justice building in the Government Complex Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 21st, Minister Park conveyed his personnel policy to Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok after his inauguration ceremony the day before, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office communicated this to the chief prosecutors.

Initially, there was speculation inside and outside the prosecution that Minister Park would conduct personnel reshuffles to fill some vacant chief prosecutor-level positions after his appointment. The Ministry of Justice recently obtained consent forms for personnel verification from about ten prosecutors of the 31st class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

Minister Park seems to have considered that it would not be too late to conduct personnel reshuffles after the organization stabilizes, rather than causing unnecessary noise by making changes ahead of the general election.

Minister Park is expected to focus first on resolving delays in investigations and trials caused by the adjustment of investigative authority and seek solutions. During the confirmation hearing, Minister Park mentioned, "The biggest problem is that all criminal justice procedures are being delayed at the investigation and trial sites following the adjustment of investigative authority."

Additionally, organizational discipline issues, such as current prosecutors ignoring directives from the leadership while running for the general election, are also challenges that Minister Park must address.

Kim Sang-min, a prosecutor at the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office (age 45, 35th class), who was serving as a senior prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office last September during Chuseok, sent text messages to people from his hometown suggesting his intention to run for the general election and held a book launch event immediately after submitting his resignation at the end of last year. Ignoring the leadership's order to exercise restraint, Kim registered as a preliminary candidate in the Changwon district of Gyeongnam. Kim recently received a disciplinary suspension of three months.