Ruling and Opposition Parties Offer Split Assessments... Decision Comes Ten Days After Inspector General Appointment
On the 11th, Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Ho-jung said he would order the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) to launch an audit (a procedure to investigate officials' duties and correct wrongdoing) against Gwangju District CIO Chief Im Eun-jeong, who has openly criticized Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to be the first head of the CIO. It is the first time an interior minister has exercised supervisory authority over the CIO.
Democratic Party of Korea spokesperson Cho Gye-won, meeting with reporters at the National Assembly, called the audit order a commonsense measure, saying it is "absurd to nitpick a superior's personnel decisions." Regarding internal opposition to the Kim nominee, Cho said, "Issues not yet addressed during the confirmation hearing can be fully resolved through additional verification." He added, "It is not right for the media or social media to raise questions about qualifications before verification has even begun," noting that party leader Kim Min-seok had strongly warned about such conduct. Kim had said during a party YouTube appearance on the 7th, regarding intra-party calls to veto the nominee, "It is time for the party to take control of this issue."
The People Power Party pushed back head-on. Kang Myeong-gu, the party's lawmaker serving as opposition secretary of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, criticized on Facebook: "It was the interior minister himself who appointed Im as the first chief of the Gwangju District CIO. Appointing her a week ago and launching an audit a mere ten days later amounts to a confession of a personnel fiasco." Kang pointed out that Im has a history of politically charged social media posts dating back to her days as a prosecutor, saying, "Everyone knew this situation was a disaster waiting to happen." He added, "Ordering an audit over remarks that are not about personal favoritism could set a bad precedent that threatens the CIO's investigative independence and political neutrality."
The Cho Kuk Innovation Party, which has opposed the Kim nominee, also took issue with the audit order. Senior spokesperson Park Byeong-eon said in a statement, "The audit order could inadvertently create an environment where problems with the Kim nominee cannot be raised with conviction, which is inappropriate," adding, "More urgent than auditing Chief Im is revealing how investigative information was leaked to Han Dong-hoon." He went on to say, "This is the moment to quickly resolve the controversial nomination and focus on establishing the separation of investigation and prosecution between the CIO and the prosecution service."
The audit order marks the first major conflict faced by the CIO since its launch on October 2, 2026. The ruling and opposition parties offered sharply contrasting assessments of the office, which marked its tenth day without a confirmed head. With the Kim nominee's confirmation hearing ahead, the fate of the audit is expected to hinge on how the personnel and verification processes unfold.
