Jinsoo Lee, the newly appointed Vice Minister of Justice, stated, "I will work to build consensus on the prosecution reform agenda being pursued by the new administration through active communication and discussion."
At his inauguration ceremony held at the Government Complex Gwacheon on the 30th, Vice Minister Lee said, "Public trust in the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution is very low, while calls for change and reform are high. This is the reality we face," he said.
Vice Minister Lee continued, "The Ministry of Justice and the prosecution have contributed to national development by silently carrying out heavy workloads through the dedicated efforts of their members, protecting the public from crimes that affect daily life, and establishing the rule of law. However, we must also reflect with humility on the shortcomings where the prosecution's investigations have failed to fully uphold the values of fairness, equity, and restraint, and where issues such as abuse of investigative authority and allegations of biased investigations have been continuously raised, falling short of public expectations."
He added, "The prosecution must also transform itself to reflect the voices of the public calling for change and reform, as well as the increasingly advanced and specialized social environment in each sector. I will make every effort to build consensus among the public, the media, and within the prosecution itself, through active communication and discussion regarding the prosecution reform agenda being pursued by the new administration."
He went on to say, "Through these efforts, I will strive to ensure that prosecution reform is successfully achieved in a way that does not create gaps in the nation's crime response capabilities, while enabling the prosecution to become a more fair and objective institution and improving the quality of criminal justice services provided to the public."
Previously, on the 29th, President Jaemyung Lee appointed Jinsoo Lee, Director of the Criminal Affairs Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (prosecutor general level), as Vice Minister of Justice. Vice Minister Lee was born in Seoul and graduated from Youngdong High School and the Department of Law at Seoul National University. He passed the 39th National Judicial Examination and completed the 29th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute. Appointed as a prosecutor at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office in 2000, Vice Minister Lee has held key positions including Legal Affairs Officer at the Ministry of Justice, Head of the Criminal Division 4 at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, and Chief Prosecutor at the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office.
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