The Rebuilding Korea Party said on the 7th that it has "strong concerns" over the nomination of Kim Ji-yong, a lawyer and former prosecutor, as the first head of the new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, calling him a "prosecution-centered figure who undermines the principles of prosecution reform."
Lim Myung-hee, spokesperson for the Rebuilding Korea Party, said in a commentary that day that "placing another figure from the prosecution service at the helm of a newly created agency dedicated to investigations cannot escape criticism that the separation of investigation and indictment exists only on paper."
The nomination recommendation committee screened 11 candidates put forward through public recommendations on the 4th of this month and forwarded four names to Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Ho-jung: Kim, along with lawyers Moon Hong-joo and Kim Kwan-jung and Myongji University professor Lee Yoon-je. The committee selected Kim as the final nominee that day. Kim has served as a senior partner at the law firm Apex and, as a member of the 28th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, previously headed the criminal affairs bureau at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and served as deputy chief prosecutor at the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office.
Lim noted that Kim, then deputy chief prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, signed a collective statement in November 2020 protesting the suspension of then-Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol from duty. "We are deeply concerned that this may be an attempt to extend the influence of the existing prosecution establishment," she said.
"If the head of an investigative agency is someone steeped in the workings and culture of the prosecution service, there is a risk that the substance of the reform separating investigation from indictment will be badly distorted," she said, adding that it was "highly regrettable" that no candidate with a police background was included in the pool.
"Separating organizations without first carrying out personnel turnover and cultural renewal amounts to nothing more than an irregular restructuring that creates a second prosecutors' office," she said, signaling that the party would thoroughly vet Kim.
