He was a prosecutor ‘ once more’.
President Yoon Seok-yeol appointed Lee Bok-hyeon, former head of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office, as the new head of the Financial Supervisory Service.
This is not the first time that a former prosecutor has been selected for a key position since the inauguration of the Yoon Seok-yeol government, but with this appointment as an opportunity, concerns regarding ‘prosecutor-specific personnel’ are growing.
However, President Yoon Seok-yeol said, “Director Lee Bok-hyun is a very suitable person,” and answered the criticism that the talent pool is narrow, “Were not people from Minbyon very wallpapering in the past?”
Inauguration Ceremony of Bok-Hyun Lee, Chairman of the Financial Supervisory Service
FSS chief for the first time in history… “Strict standards for market disturbance”
It is the first time since the establishment of the Financial Supervisory Service in 1999 that a lawyer who used to be a prosecutor has been appointed as the head of the Financial Supervisory Service.
After passing the bar exam in 2000, Director Lee completed the 32nd Judicial Research and Training Institute in 2003 and began his career as a prosecutor at the southern branch of the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office.
After that, he served as the head of the 4th Special Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office and the head of the Economic Crimes and Criminal Investigation Division, and walked the path of a special prosecutor.
In addition, starting with the 2006 Hyundai Motor slush fund case, the NIS has been classified as one of the representative Yoon Seok-yeol divisions in the prosecution in cooperation with President Yoon, from the investigation into allegations of interference in the election by the National Intelligence Service.
In April, when the Democratic Party adopted the law to separate the prosecution’s investigative powers as its party argument, he left the prosecution in protest once morest it, but returned to the head of the Financial Supervisory Service, which oversees inspection and supervision of financial institutions.
At the inauguration ceremony, President Lee expressed his will to eradicate illegal acts in the financial market, saying that strict standards should be applied to disruptive behavior in the financial market and that the eradication of unfair trade will be the foundation for revitalizing the financial market.
6 hours following mentioning ‘right place’… Are ‘right place’ and ‘from the prosecution’ synonymous?
Let’s briefly review the situation yesterday (7th) when the appointment of Director Lee Bok-hyun was made.
Yesterday morning, President Yoon Seok-yeol met with reporters on the way to work and answered the question ‘How do you view criticism that the prosecutors monopolize important government posts?’
“Our HR principle is to use competent people in the right places.”
As such, regarding six hours following President Yoon mentioned the personnel principle of ‘the right place’, former chief prosecutor Lee Bok-hyeon was appointed as the head of the Financial Supervisory Service.
The Financial Services Commission, which proposed Chairman Lee, said that President Lee has been realizing economic justice through serious economic crime investigations while serving as the prosecution, and is the right person to effectively carry out the current tasks of the Financial Supervisory Service, such as creating a compliance management environment for financial companies and protecting financial consumers. The background to the request was explained as it was evaluated.
In particular, the history of the director was introduced as follows.
“The nominee is a financial and economic investigation expert who graduated from the Department of Economics at Seoul National University and passed the CPA exam and the bar exam at the same time, and served as the head of the economic crime criminal division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.”
It is interpreted that Lee’s ‘economic’ history was specially emphasized, conscious of the so-called ‘prosecution biased personnel’ controversy.
Democratic Party “Are you from a prosecutor or a competent person?”
When Lee Bok-hyeon, former chief prosecutor, was appointed as the head of the Financial Supervisory Service, the Democratic Party of Korea criticized it, saying, “If you don’t come from the prosecutor’s office, are competent people in Korea withered?”
Spokesperson Cho Oh-seop said, “President Yoon Seok-yeol seems to consider dividing seats.
Rep. Kim Sang-hee also said on Facebook, “It’s too much to simply say that it is a person with a bias towards the prosecution.”
Rep. Chungcheong-rae Jeong wrote on SNS, “Is it another prosecutor?” “At the time of Doo-Hwan Chun, there was a saying regarding a doctor above a master’s degree, a doctor above a doctorate, and a female teacher above a doctor’s office.
Conservative media also ‘bitter’… ‘Republic of Prosecutors’ as a reality?
Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader of the People’s Power, said, “It’s not something to criticize too much regarding the fact that there are many prosecutors in the presidential office and important positions in the government.”
Kwon, who is also a former prosecutor, said, “Because the president is from the prosecution, he wants to use a trusted person, someone who has been verified while working with him, in a department with strong authority, where his interests can be involved, and if he does it wrong, it can cause a very big problem. I don’t think I did,” he said.
However, even conservative newspapers expressed concern over the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s biased personnel in the prosecution.
In an editorial titled today (8th), JoongAng Ilbo said, “The FSC evaluated Lee Bok-hyun as the right person to effectively carry out the current task of the FSS, but we have to ask if he is the right person.”
The editorial said, “Lee was a person who viewed business and finance as a prism of ‘crime’, as seen in his participation in investigations such as the Hyundai Motor slush fund case, the low-price sale of Lone Star Korea Exchange Bank, and the case of former President Park Geun-hye’s state affairs. “Debt can smoothly support the Lime and Optimus case re-investigation and various financial crime investigations, but the FSS’s work is much more complicated than that,” he pointed out.
He also added, “It is too much to appoint prosecutors one following another, even to institutions that require independence and expertise.”
Earlier, the Chosun Ilbo also criticized the prosecution’s biased personnel yesterday (7th).
The Chosun Ilbo, in an editorial titled “,” said, referring to the appointment of Cho Sang-jun, a former prosecutor, to the head of the National Intelligence Service’s keynote office. “It is the appointment of a prosecutor who is closest to the National Intelligence Service to a key position that oversees the organization, personnel, and budget of the National Intelligence Service.”
He also pointed out, “There are six people with prosecution experience at the ministerial level, and a former prosecutor was appointed for the first time to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Veterans Affairs at the ministerial level.” (For reference, this editorial was published before Lee Bok-hyeon, the head of the Financial Supervisory Service, was appointed.)
An official from the presidential office said, “President Yoon is well aware of the criticism of the prosecution’s biased selection.”
“The principle of finding competent personnel in the right place will not change in the future,” he added, adding, “I will consider internally the issue of expanding the talent pool.”
尹 “Lee Bok-hyeon is a very suitable person. Wasn’t Min-byun dominated in the past?”
President Yoon Seok-yeol made a statement today (8th) as criticisms over the appointment of the head of the Financial Supervisory Service were biased once morest the prosecution.
First of all, regarding Lee Bok-hyeon, he said, “I think he is a very suitable person because he majored in economics and accounting, and he has a lot of experience in collaboration with the Financial Supervisory Service in the course of financial investigations for many years, and he is an expert in financial supervision and regulation and market research.”
When asked whether Professor Kang Sue-jin, a professor at Korea University Law School, was excluded from the list of candidates for the Fair Trade Commission due to the prosecution’s bias, President Yoon said, “Not at all,” implying that there are other reasons.
To the question of ‘there are criticisms that the president’s talent pool is too narrow’, President Yoon responded, “Were not people from Minbyon very wallpapering in the past?”
He said, “Even in developed countries, especially in countries like the United States, people with such attorney experience are entering politics very widely,” he said.
In particular, President Yoon said, “The Financial Supervisory Service and the Fair Trade Commission are regulatory oversight bodies, so they have to work predictably with due process and legal standards, so it is a very appropriate place for those dealing with law enforcement to go and demonstrate their capabilities.” .
It is interpreted that while dismissing criticism of the ‘appointment of the head of the Financial Supervisory Service from the prosecution’, he expressed his will to appoint a former lawyer to the Fair Trade Commission, which has not yet been appointed.
As such, as President Yoon expressed his will to break through the controversy over personnel biased by the prosecution, the controversy is expected to intensify.
