Cho Kuk: "Song Young-gil's Remarks Run Counter to Roh Moo-hyun's Spirit"
Cho Kuk, head of the Policy Research Institute of the Rebuilding Korea Party, rebutted Song Young-gil, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying his claim that 'personnel from prosecutors' backgrounds are also needed' runs counter to the direction of prosecutorial reform pursued through the Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in governments. In a Facebook post on the 3rd, Cho told Song, "I hope you will remain faithful to your original mission."
The day before, on the 2nd, Song appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' to defend Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to be the first head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. Kim had faced calls from within the ruling camp to withdraw his nomination due to his track record of opposing the reduction of prosecutors' investigative powers and the disciplinary action against then Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol. But Song argued that criticism from Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae and Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Yong-min was excessive, and that the president's appointment, made after additional vetting, should be respected. His logic was that experienced former prosecutors are needed for the investigation office to build investigative capability in its early days.
Song also took issue with the Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in governments having appointed non-prosecutors as justice minister and senior presidential secretary for civil affairs. He said, "During the Moon Jae-in government, Professor Cho Kuk, who wasn't even a former lawyer, was appointed senior secretary for civil affairs," adding, "He knew nothing about the inside of the prosecution, and prosecutorial reform was never properly done — it was just paperwork."
In response, Cho explained that the two former presidents' judgment was in fact the exact opposite. They opted for non-prosecutors out of concern that former prosecutors, rather than pushing reform, would compromise with the institution. "They tried to appoint non-prosecutors as justice minister and senior secretary for civil affairs whenever possible, because they believed a former prosecutor would make compromises," Cho said. He assessed that the argument for appointing former prosecutors "directly runs counter to the spirit of prosecutorial reform of the Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in governments."
In his Facebook post, Cho also revisited the circumstances of his own appointment as senior secretary for civil affairs, saying it was made in recognition of his prosecutorial reform activism as head of the judicial monitoring center of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. He emphasized that during his tenure he laid the groundwork for adjusting the division of investigative powers between police and prosecutors and for establishing the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.
