President Lee Jae-myung said on the 1st that blocking a former prosecutor from leading a key investigative body simply because of that background would amount to ruining the new agency, pushing back against criticism from parts of the ruling camp over Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to head the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency.
"If you tell us not to use a former prosecutor who is an investigative expert for the post of head of an important investigative body, just because he is a former prosecutor, that is the same as ruining the agency," Lee said.
Late the previous night, Lee had also said that "the record of prosecutor Kim Ji-yong as anti-Yoon, rather than pro-Yoon, is a fact already confirmed by media reports."
Lee made the comments early in the day on X, formerly Twitter, after sharing a post by an internet user opposing Kim's appointment. "There are probably many people who do so out of genuine concern for me and for the country's future," he wrote, before laying out his position.
Lee added: "If we are to discard everyone who was once a prosecutor, what happens to Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Park Eun-jung, prosecutor Lim Eun-jung and Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sung-yoon, all of whom are former prosecutors?"
He said that because of objections labeling Kim a pro-Yoon Suk-yeol prosecutor, additional vetting had been conducted over an extended period, and the claims "turned out to be largely untrue, or even groundless false allegations."
"The goal of prosecution reform is not to take revenge on the prosecution or to wreck it," Lee said. "Isn't it to separate investigation and indictment, to prevent it from being abused by any administration again, and to make investigation and prosecution work properly?" He added that neither state affairs nor prosecution reform "should be about settling personal feelings or grudges" and should not serve the interests of any particular individual or group.
On the nomination process, Lee said the president had not decided unilaterally. "An independent recommendation committee recommended four candidates, and the interior minister then proposed Kim," he said. "After consultations, Kim was judged to be the most suitable."
He continued: "If Kim is excluded, he would have to be replaced by one of the remaining three recommended candidates. Whether the objections raised about Kim are grounds for requesting a new proposal, or whether the remaining three candidates could replace him, is still a matter for deliberation and judgment."
Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae stresses firsthand experience
As Lee signaled support for the nominee, Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae released a pointedly worded message, saying it is "only right for someone who has experienced it firsthand to warn others about what to be wary of."
In a Facebook post the same day, Choo wrote: "At the very least, for the people I care about, I think it is right to tell them what I saw and to stop them from suffering the same disappointment."
Choo described visiting a restaurant on a recommendation. "But once I looked inside, the hygiene was a mess and the staff were unfriendly," she wrote. "The ingredients and the taste were poor as well."
"Once you learn that the sign outside and the reality inside are different, you cannot recommend the place to others," she wrote. "People are the same. I believe it is only right for someone who has experienced it firsthand to warn others about what to be wary of."
Choo has voiced opposition to the selection of the agency's first chief, citing Kim's record during his time at the prosecution service.
