All Four Deputy Chiefs of Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Replaced Ahead of Public Prosecution Office Launch

Yonhap News Agency

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All four deputy chief prosecutors of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office have been replaced in the mid-level personnel reshuffle announced by the prosecution ahead of the launch of the Public Prosecution Service. This means that the entire leadership team has changed just over two months after Park Chulwoo took office as chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in November last year. The personnel changes are interpreted as an effort to quickly establish a leadership team loyal to the current administration amid ongoing prosecutorial reform.

According to the legal community on January 30, the Ministry of Justice carried out a large-scale personnel transfer involving a total of 927 prosecutors, including 569 deputy and division chief prosecutors and 358 regular prosecutors, effective February 4 and 9. Andongun, Director of the Anti-Corruption Division 1 at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, was appointed as the new First Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. Kim Taeheon, Head of the Prosecutorial Reform Support Task Force at the Ministry of Justice, was named Second Deputy Chief Prosecutor. Kim Taehun, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, was appointed as Third Deputy Chief Prosecutor, and Lee Seunghyung, Second Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office, was named Fourth Deputy Chief Prosecutor.

With this reshuffle, all four deputy chief prosecutors who oversee key investigations at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office have been replaced at once. Choi Jeaah, the outgoing First Deputy, will become head of the Anyang Branch; Park Junyoung, the outgoing Third Deputy, will move to the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office as First Deputy; and Lee Junho, the outgoing Fourth Deputy, will become head of the Goyang Branch. While deputy chief prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office is typically considered the top post for promotion to chief prosecutor, only former Second Deputy Jang Hyeyoung (now Head of the Scientific Investigation Division at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office) was promoted in this reshuffle, with the other three excluded from promotion.

Legal experts see this as a major reorganization of the leadership structure in connection with the launch of the Public Prosecution Service. Some of the replaced deputy chief prosecutors are known to have disagreed with Chief Park Chulwoo, who took office after former chief Jeong Jinwoo resigned in November last year over the controversy surrounding the withdrawal of the Daejang-dong appeal, regarding the direction of case handling and the government’s prosecutorial reform legislation.

Following the earlier reshuffle of chief prosecutors on January 22, this mid-level personnel change also included prosecutors who had expressed internal opposition during the Daejang-dong appeal withdrawal incident. Branch chiefs Lim Ilsu, Kim Yunseon, Son Chanoh, Cho Minwoo, and Yoon Wonki, among others, were transferred to positions such as high prosecutors.

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