Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae is escalating her criticism of Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to head South Korea's newly launched Major Crimes Investigation Agency.
Choo wrote on Facebook on the night of Oct. 2, the day the agency formally began operations, "Why appoint as captain of the ship of reform someone who could turn their back on the public and on justice at any moment," according to the provincial government.
She added that the nominee "is not at all the right person to lead the agency in overcoming the insurrection, at a time when prosecution forces have not been fully investigated themselves."
President Lee Jae-myung had earlier defended the nominee against objections from parts of the ruling bloc, saying Kim was "not a pro-Yoon figure but an anti-Yoon one" and noting that "Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae promoted him to chief prosecutor during the Moon Jae-in administration."
Choo rebutted the president's remarks point by point. She said Kim had been promoted on the recommendation of the vice minister at the time, but that he had joined a collective protest when disciplinary proceedings began against then-Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol.
"I confess that my judgment of people was terrible," she wrote. "Do not treat the fact that I promoted him as grounds for trusting him." Whether he is pro-Yoon or anti-Yoon, she said, is not the heart of the matter.
On Oct. 1, Choo had also attacked the nominee by likening him to an unsanitary restaurant. "I went on a recommendation that it was a good place to eat, but the hygiene was a mess and the ingredients were poor," she said.
