President Lee Jae-myung orders additional vetting of nominee to head Corruption Investigation Office

President Lee Jae-myung has ordered additional vetting of Kim Ji-yong, the nominee for head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO, the agency that specializes in investigating serious crimes such as corruption by high-ranking public officials), it was revealed on the 14th. Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Ho-jung nominated lawyer Kim as the CIO chief nominee on the 7th, and the presidential office said President Lee had decided to designate Kim as the nominee and would soon request a confirmation hearing from the National Assembly. However, as of the 14th, about a week later, no hearing request had been made to the National Assembly.

According to a ruling party official, the additional vetting began after President Lee, immediately upon returning from his state visit to France on the 10th, instructed that "we should probably take a closer look at various facts." The official explained that the additional vetting was not directly related to critical remarks made by Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae.

Kim, a former prosecutor, has publicly argued in the past for the need to maintain prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority (the power of prosecutors to revisit and supplement police investigations). Within the Democratic Party of Korea, some are calling for further scrutiny of the nominee's views on prosecutorial reform.

Regarding whether additional vetting of the nominee is underway, the presidential office has only stated that "it is difficult to confirm matters related to personnel appointments," leaving the timing of the hearing request to the National Assembly undecided.