President Lee Jae-myung on the 30th directly rebutted claims raised mainly by hardline prosecution reform advocates within the ruling party that Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to head the newly created Major Crimes Investigation Agency, is a prosecutor aligned with former President Yoon Suk-yeol and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon. It was the first time Lee had publicly commented on the nominee.
Lee shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, that labeled Kim a pro-Yoon prosecutor and opposed his appointment. "First, I thank you for the advice and criticism," Lee wrote, adding that while anyone is free to criticize or advise on state affairs, such input carries meaning as genuine criticism and advice only when it is based on facts.
Lee then listed the facts the government had verified regarding the characterization of Kim as a pro-Yoon prosecutor. He noted that Kim was promoted to chief prosecutor while Choo Mi-ae served as justice minister under the Moon Jae-in administration, and that Kim, while serving as head of the criminal division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office during Yoon's tenure as prosecutor general, ordered a reinvestigation into allegations that Yoon's mother-in-law, Choi Eun-soon, had committed perjury with intent to harm.
Kim did order a reinvestigation in July 2021, while serving as head of the criminal division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, into the perjury allegations against Choi that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office had decided not to indict. When the Seoul office submitted another recommendation against indictment in October that year, Kim rejected it once, saying further investigation was needed.
Lee particularly stressed that Kim "was demoted to a deputy chief prosecutor post in the provinces after Yoon Suk-yeol won the presidency and ultimately resigned as if driven out." Kim had also previously told reporters that he was demoted in the first prosecution reshuffle after the Yoon administration took office, and that he had never received any benefit during his time as a prosecutor because of closeness to any particular person. Kim left the prosecution service in 2023, during the Yoon administration.
Nevertheless, Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae and some figures in the Democratic Party of Korea and the Rebuilding Korea Party argue that Kim is unsuitable as the agency's first chief, citing that he argued for the need for prosecutors to conduct direct supplementary investigations during the legislative process to strip prosecutors of investigative powers under the Moon administration, and that he joined a statement by chief prosecutors opposing disciplinary action against Yoon when Yoon was prosecutor general.
As such objections continued, Lee ordered additional vetting of Kim on the 14th. The presidential office had initially described Kim as a "investigation and legal expert" and the right person to lead the agency steadily under the new criminal justice framework, but ordered a fresh review of the relevant facts after resistance spread within the ruling bloc that the appointment did not align with the purpose of prosecution reform.
Lee appears to have moved to draw a line against the pro-Yoon characterization after the additional vetting reconfirmed Kim's past record. "I am the biggest victim of the political prosecution under the Yoon Suk-yeol government, and ensuring that such things never happen again is one of this administration's biggest tasks," Lee said. "Setting everything else aside, it is hard to accept criticizing such a person on the grounds that he is a pro-Yoon prosecutor."
He added that if someone makes far-fetched claims based on falsehoods to damage and attack while knowing them to be false, that is not criticism but slander, and not advice on state affairs but obstruction of state affairs. He also made clear that there is a difference between normal criticism and deliberately false claims, saying that claims made on a mistaken understanding of the facts can be corrected in the public arena.
Lee's message is seen as both a direct response to calls within the ruling bloc to withdraw the nomination and an emphasis that judgments on prosecution reform appointments will weigh actual investigative careers and records rather than simple political labels such as pro-Yoon or pro-Han.
The agency is set to officially launch on October 2, but a request for a National Assembly confirmation hearing on Kim has yet to be submitted. As of the previous day, the presidential office maintained a cautious stance, saying nothing had been decided on the timing of the request. With the president now directly rebutting the pro-Yoon claims after the additional vetting, however, the personnel process for Kim is expected to gather pace again.
