Every deputy chief, bureau director and division head appointed to the Seoul office of South Korea's new Serious Crime Investigation Agency, which will lead investigations into the country's six major categories of serious crime, has come from the prosecution service. The agency was created to separate investigation from indictment and to address criticism of how prosecutors conducted investigations, but with sitting prosecutors now occupying its core investigative posts, critics say the agency has become another prosecutors' office.
The agency recently completed appointments covering the Seoul office's first through third deputy chiefs, five of its six bureau directors — all but the head of the antitrust investigation bureau — and division heads under the six investigative bureaus, according to legal sources on the 5th. Lee Chun, a member of the 33rd class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute who will oversee economic and financial crime investigations as first deputy chief, previously headed the information technology crime investigation division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and served as chief of the Bucheon branch office. Lee Jin-yong, from the 35th class, who will handle investigations into politicians and corporations as second deputy chief, served as head of the tax crime investigation division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and as spokesman for the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Shin Jun-ho, from the 33rd class and now third deputy chief, previously served as deputy head of the joint narcotics investigation headquarters at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office.
Of the Seoul office's six investigative bureaus, all but the antitrust investigation bureau are headed by former prosecutors. Chang In-ho, from the 36th class, who heads the economic crime investigation bureau, and Choi Jong-pil, also from the 36th class, who heads the financial crime investigation bureau, previously served as prosecutors seconded to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the Financial Services Commission, respectively. Kim Jung-hwan, from the 37th class, who will handle corruption investigations involving politicians as head of the anti-corruption investigation bureau, served as head of the second financial investigation division at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office and as a prosecutor seconded to the joint investigation headquarters on political-religious collusion. Kim Dong-yul, from the 38th class, who will oversee investigations into technology leaks as head of the advanced crime investigation bureau, previously headed the defense industry and industrial technology crime investigation division at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office. Of the 25 division head posts under the six investigative bureaus, 11 remain vacant, while all 14 of the filled positions went to officials who moved to the agency from the prosecution service.
Among the seven senior investigators at the first grade — including the agency's deputy chiefs and the heads of its regional offices — four came from the prosecution service and three have backgrounds as judges, a balance that was deliberately struck. But sitting prosecutors took both the leadership and the mid-level management posts at the Seoul office, which handles the most significant cases. One legal source said the decision to fill all major posts with prosecutors shows that, in practical terms, a serious crime investigation organization cannot be run properly by anyone other than prosecutors, given that most serious crime investigations will be conducted at the Seoul office.
