Prosecution Faces Major Shakeup
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The prosecution is facing a major shakeup in its upper echelons after President Lee Myung-bak nominated the relatively young Chun Sung-gwan as the nation's top prosecutor.
If Chun, the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, is approved by the National Assembly ㅡ a prerequisite before the President can make an official appointment ㅡ around 10 senior prosecutors are expected to quit the rigidly structured and seniority-based organization.
Some of the group, all of whom passed the state bar exam before the 51-year-old, have already handed in their resignations.
Kwon Jae-jin, head of the Seoul High Public Prosecutors Office, and Kim Joon-kyu, head of the Daejeon High Public Prosecutors' Office, stepped down Monday, with other senior prosecutors expected to follow suit.
President Lee said Chun's nomination was intended to breath fresh air into an organization that became stagnant following the sudden death of former President Roh Moo-hyun.
``It's to change the prosecution,'' President Lee said in a meeting with his secretaries. ``The prosecution should be the last resort of justice and look back on what was wrong with its investigation practices in the past.''
A senior prosecutor said President Lee has so far had little influence on the prosecution, because its top seats remain occupied by those appointed during the Roh presidency. ``By replacing them with his aides, however, Lee will get a grip on it,'' he said.
The 51-year-old nominee is known to have gained the trust of President Lee by commanding investigations into MBC network's investigative TV program ``PD Notebook,'' whose producers and writers were indicted on charges of exaggerating the risk of mad cow disease associated with U.S. beef and falsifying translations.
Chun told reporters Monday morning that, if appointed, he would do his best to overcome the prosecution's recent tumultuous times. ``I also expect the media to cooperate with us to overcome the hard times,'' he said.
Critics say Chun's nomination indicates that it is only a matter of time before the Lee administration gains momentum in pushing ahead with the President's growth-oriented economic policies, called ``MB-nomics,'' while cracking down on anti-government moves.