◀ anchor ▶
An organization that collects fraudulent information from ministers and high-ranking public officials of all ministries and conducts personnel verification is established under the direct control of the Minister of Justice.
In the meantime, President Yoon Seok-yeol’s position was to abolish the Office of Civil Affairs because the authority of the Office of Civil Affairs was too strong.
In addition, the phrase ‘a minister above the minister’ is no longer just a word, as one minister can look into all the personal information of all other ministers.
First of all, this is reporter Son Gu-min.
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Former senior civil affairs secretary Woo Byung-woo of the Park Geun-hye administration was arrested and imprisoned on charges of illegal inspection using the National Intelligence Service.
The Moon Jae-in administration’s former chief of civil affairs, Cho Kuk, is also being tried on suspicion of evading inspections by Yoo Jae-soo, Deputy Mayor of Busan for Economic Affairs.
Since its introduction in 1968, the chief of civil affairs has been held by the president’s closest aides.
He has wielded powerful authority by overseeing public officials’ personnel verification and inspection, as well as overseeing agencies such as the prosecution and the National Intelligence Service.
[김은혜/당선인 대변인(지난 3월)]
“It is not in the dictionary of President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol that the presidential office even performs an assessment function that leaves a lot of room for abuse of authority.”
With the disappearance of senior civil affairs officer in the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, a new personnel information management team is created in the Ministry of Justice to take charge of personnel verification for public officials.
It will be installed with 20 people, including 4 prosecutors, under the direct supervision of the Minister of Justice.
It is pointed out that the outline of the personnel verification organization of the Yun Seok-yeol administration, which removed the chief of public affairs, was first revealed, and eventually led to the strengthening of the powers of the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution.
[양홍석/전 참여연대 공익법센터장]
“There is inevitably a controversy over whether there is actually an ‘investigation by the Ministry of Justice’ that transfers or accuses any misinformation confirmed through personnel verification or these things (to the prosecution).”
In particular, prosecutors had to wait one year following retirement to be dispatched to the senior civil affairs office, but with the establishment of a verification organization in the Ministry of Justice, this check-in system became useless.
As if conscious of the criticism, the Ministry of Justice is planning to appoint a non-prosecuting officer as the first head of the department and create a system so that the personnel verification process is not reported to the minister.
The Ministry of Justice has only two days before the legislative notice to collect opinions, and it seems to be intended to speed up the launch of the personnel information management team.
The Ministry of Justice system is an enforcement rule, so it will be implemented immediately following a notice of legislation and only following review by the Ministry of Legislation and the resolution of the State Council.
This is Gumin Son from MBC News.
Video Editing: Lee Jeong-geun
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