Some Prosecutors Resist being Forced Out

Justice Minister Kang Kum-sil was supposed to finalize a reshuffle plan within this week and carry out a reshuffle of 41 senior officials in the prosecution early next week right after the president Roh Moo-hyun’s approval (Kim Kak-young, prosecutor general will be retained because he is midway through a two-year term.)

Carrying out a reshuffle within the organization necessitates a prior consultation between the Justice Minister and the prosecutor general. In particular, for the newly appointed Justice Minister who is not conversant with what is going on within the organization, a prior consultation with the prosecutor general is much more needed than ever before.

However, not to mention a fine-tuning on a reshuffle plan for the prosecution, Minister Kang and prosecutor general Kim have not brought up the matter yet, sources said. It has been reported that although they had a secret meeting at an unknown place in downtown Seoul on Mar.3, they only talked about jitters among the prosecutors in the wake of the announcement of director of the Justice Ministry planning and management office Chung Sang-myong being named as vice minister of the ministry without a discussion on a reshuffle.

The reason is because positions on the already anticipated retirements of three high-ranking prosecutors who passed the twelfth judicial examination with the prosecutor general Kim were not clear yet. Although two of them expressed their willingness to retire from office, the remaining one expressed his unpleasant feeling with respect to the anticipated retirement by saying, “Dishonorable retirement is not what I have wanted.” It has been said that some of the prosecutors strongly demanded that senior prosecutors who passed the twelfth examination resist retirements in protest to the latest appointments that broke traditional standards applied to the promotions and appointments within the prosecution.

In addition, two senior prosecutors of the thirteenth judicial examination class that are usually working as chief prosecutors have not decided which course to take in the case of not being promoted to chief prosecutors at the High Public Prosecutors’ Office.

There has been widespread agitation among senior prosecutors who mainly passed the fifteenth and sixteenth examinations. In case of the fifteenth class, the largest number in the prosecution, in the past, one of the fifteenth class was promoted as the head of the Seoul District Public Prosecutor’s Office. However, that is not the case this time because if a prosecutor among the sixteenth or seventeenth class is promoted to higher offices in the Seoul district prosecutor’s office, most of nine prosecutors in the fifteenth class are likely to decide whether to remain at or leave the prosecution.

Against the backdrop, opinions regarding the unprecedented standards for the justice minister and vice minister posts have been posted on the in-house website. One of those opinions included that prosecutors’ retirement age should be respected.

The reason of prosecutors’ agitation mainly lies in the mood that they seem to be forced out by external influence, coupled with uncertainties in the outline and the scope of a reshuffle. Of course, the Justice Minister has promised to place an emphasis on maintaining stability within the prosecution.

However, senior prosecutors would not clear up their suspicions that the upcoming reshuffle is also likely to be unprecedented.

With such an evident jittery mood in the prosecution, in the afternoon, even rumors were circulating in the Justice Ministry, the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the Seoul district prosecutor’s office that four senior prosecutors in the twelfth and thirteenth classes tendered their resignations. As a result, those concerned had to explain that the rumor was not true at all.

Jong-Dae Ha orionha@donga.com