On the 26th, Kim Hu-gon, chief of the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office (57, 25th Judicial Research and Training Institute), who was the first candidate for prosecutor general under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, announced his resignation to the Ministry of Justice.
According to the legal circles, High Prosecutor Kim submitted a resignation letter to the Ministry of Justice on the same day.
It is interpreted as an attempt not to burden the junior prosecutor Lee Won-seok, deputy chief prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office (53rd and 27th class) as the prosecutor general to lead the organization. Due to the nature of the prosecution organization, which has a distinct top-down clothing culture, it is customary for seniors and classmates to take off their clothes to ease the burden of commanding when a low-ranking person is appointed as the president.
With the resignation of Chief Prosecutor Kim, all those who competed with Lee as a candidate for president recommended by the Prosecutor General Recommendation Committee will leave the prosecution. Earlier, on the 22nd, Yeo Hwan-seop, director of the Legal Research and Training Institute (54/24) and Lee Du-bong (58 and 25), head of the Daejeon High Prosecutor’s Office, submitted resignations to the Ministry of Justice, respectively.
Prosecutor Kim was from Namhae, Gyeongnam, and graduated from Kyungdong High School and Dongguk University Law School. He is a ‘special prosecutor’ who passed through the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office Special Division and the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office Special 1 Division. Since then, he has served as a spokesperson for the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the head of the Planning and Coordination Office of the Ministry of Justice, and the head of the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office. He was promoted from the prosecution personnel last May to the chief of the high prosecutor’s office.
High Prosecutor Kim has been highly trusted by junior prosecutors in the evaluation that he has both skills and a gentle personality. In April, at the time of the controversy over the ‘completely deprived of the prosecutor’s investigative authority’ bill, he voiced opposition on behalf of the prosecution organization.
Reporter Lee Hye-won, Donga.com hyewon@donga.com