Moon accepts prosecutor general's resignation after signing reform bills

Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo, front, leaves the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seoul's Seocho District for good, Friday, after President Moon Jae-in accepted Kim's resignation earlier the same day. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

President Moon Jae-in on May 6 has accepted the resignation of Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo, days after the president signed the controversial prosecutorial reform bills into law. Earlier, Kim had offered to resign in protest of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) push to pass the legislation.

Kim said he resigned because he feels responsible for the recent fiasco surrounding the country's prosecutors and the National Assembly's passage of the reform bills on May 3 ― the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act ― which prosecutors adamantly objected to, including Kim himself.

Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said Friday that it “has come to the point where accepting Kim's resignation could no longer be delayed.”

Kim previously submitted his resignation to Cheong Wa Dae on April 17 when the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) lawmakers, who hold the majority of 171 out of the 300 seats, were preparing to push forward passing the two prosecution reform bills despite steadfast objections from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) and a drove of national prosecutors.

President Moon returned the resignation the next day when he had a meeting with Kim, asking him to make more efforts in concert with the National Assembly and to complete his term as the country's top prosecutor, to which Kim had agreed.

But when the speaker of the National Assembly, Rep. Park Byeong-seug, DPK floor leader Rep. Park Hong-keun and PPP floor leader Rep. Kwon Seong-dong held a tripartite meeting on April 22 in which they agreed to pass the prosecution reform bills, Kim, seeing no more chance to block the bills' passage, submitted his resignation again. Despite the agreement, the bills later resurfaced as the subject of even fiercer political contention, after PPP lawmakers objected to the result of the tripartite meeting.

“Kim repeatedly expressed his willingness to take responsibility for the whole prosecution reform fiasco, and his intention could no longer be ignored,” spokesperson Park said Friday.

Observers said Moon accepted Kim's resignation as the whole prosecutors reform fiasco has been settled for now, after Moon signed the bills into law on May 3 following the bills' passage in the Assembly. The president might have accepted Kim's resignation, according to the observers, also because he didn't wish to leave the burden of dealing with Kim to the incoming government under President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol. Yoon's inauguration is on May 10.

Alongside Kim, eight other chief prosecutors submitted their resignations to Cheong Wa Dae as well, including Kim's deputy at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and high prosecutors' office chiefs from Seoul, Suwon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Daegu and Busan, in a show of defiance against the passage of the prosecution reform bills. But Moon rejected their resignations.

Park said that if Moon had accepted their resignations, it would mean leaving a major hole amid the country's prosecutors' ranks, dealing a direct impact to members of the public. She asked those who offered to resign from their positions to “return to their roles and carry them out faithfully, especially the assistant prosecutor general at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.”