Sung Ki-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations and communication, said at a briefing that "the claim that nominee Kim is a pro-Yoon prosecutor is entirely off the mark," adding that "the nominee was promoted to chief prosecutor in August 2020, when Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae was in office, as he was judged to be the right person for prosecution reform."
He went on to explain that after Kim took up the post of head of the criminal affairs department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in June 2021, he took over the perjury case involving Choi Eun-soon, the former president's mother-in-law, identified omissions in judgment and insufficient investigation in the non-indictment decision, and ordered a reinvestigation in July of that year.
The presidential office emphasized that because of these circumstances, Kim was transferred to a provincial post in the first prosecution reshuffle under the Yoon administration in June 2022, and effectively left the prosecution service the following year. "Considering this career record, the claim in some quarters that he is a pro-Yoon prosecutor is a false claim," Sung said.
The presidential office also rebutted point by point the allegations raised against Kim regarding his participation in a statement calling for reconsideration of disciplinary action against former President Yoon, the abuse-of-authority assault case involving former senior prosecutor Jung Jin-woong, the case of former Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-eui, and the forensics controversy in the Channel A case, citing the facts in each instance.
"The additional vetting produced no findings different from the initial vetting," Sung said. "Some of the allegations raised in certain quarters were either inconsistent with the facts or amounted to vague speculation." The presidential office plans to submit a request for a confirmation hearing on Kim to the National Assembly in the coming days.
