President Lee Jae-myung has nominated Choi Gil-soo, a lawyer and former prosecutor, as special inspector. Choi served as a prosecutor in the inspection division of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office and has worked in international criminal law and internal oversight. The nomination will be finalized after a confirmation hearing. The special inspector heads an independent body that examines misconduct by the president's spouse, relatives within the fourth degree of kinship, and senior presidential secretaries and above, giving it a power-monitoring role. The appointment carries no small significance because it ends a vacancy that had persisted since the resignation of the first special inspector, Lee Suk-soo, in September 2016.
Still, there is considerable regret that the president chose a nominee recommended by the ruling party rather than the candidate put forward by the opposition and the Korean Bar Association. The concern is that under the Special Inspector Act, an inspector meant to keep close watch on the president's inner circle may be reduced to a mere ornament of power. It should not be forgotten that in July last year, President Lee stressed the importance of the role, saying it was crucial "to prevent my family and those close to me from meeting misfortune." History offers no shortage of cases in which small wrongdoing left unchecked erupted into major scandal and dealt a decisive blow to an administration. The more friction there is between a president and an inspector, the more the arrangement becomes a tonic for the administration — that much is plain.
Presidential chief spokesperson Kang Yu-jung, in a briefing on the nomination that day, likewise stressed that oversight of public officials must allow no exceptions. On this point, it is worth recalling that the first inspector, Lee, stepped down after a conflict that arose while examining Woo Byung-woo, then the presidential senior secretary for civil affairs. Some argue that had that work continued, former President Park Geun-hye might not have reached the catastrophe of impeachment. The case of former President Yoon Suk-yeol falls in the same vein. It is best to prevent wrongdoing through constant oversight rather than punish it after it breaks out. With President Lee's approval rating falling to 40.2% — the lowest since he took office — in a Realmeter survey, this principle holds true for the sake of governing momentum as well.
This is also an occasion to reform the system so it does not repeat the precedent set by the Moon Jae-in and Yoon Suk-yeol administrations, which declined to appoint a special inspector. The deadline for recommending candidates should be written into the Special Inspector Act, and the process for recommending a successor should be made mandatory before an inspector's term ends. The revival of the special inspector after 10 years should be not a political event but an institutional turning point that checks power while it is still in office.
