Kim Ji-yong, nominee to head Corruption Investigation Office, names Yoon Suk-yeol as prosecutor No. 1 in political meddling
Kim Ji-yong, nominee to serve as the first head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), agreed on the 14th on the need for prosecution reform and named former President Yoon Suk-yeol as "political prosecutor No. 1" during his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee. When Rep. Park Deok-heum of the People Power Party asked him at the hearing, "Has the prosecution been plagued by ills, and is it an object of reform?" Kim acknowledged that "various problems have come to light, so I believe there are such issues." Asked further whether the prosecution needs reform because of political prosecutors, he agreed, saying "there is that aspect."
Kim repeated his denial of allegations regarding his ties to former President Yoon. In written responses to the National Assembly, he stated that "apart from working together for about three months at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, we have never been posted together" and that "I have not met him privately in the past 10 years." At the hearing, when Park said, "Within the Democratic Party, you are attacked as a Yoon-aligned prosecutor. Are you not close to Yoon?" Kim once again denied it, saying, "No."
Kim's career has been the backdrop for this dispute. He served as chief of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's criminal affairs bureau under the Moon Jae-in government and, in June 2022, was appointed deputy chief prosecutor of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office in the first high-level prosecution reshuffle under Yoon. He later left the prosecution and practiced as a senior partner at law firm Apex before being nominated on the 7th of last month as the first head of the CIO. Hardliners within the ruling camp have raised "Yoon Suk-yeol loyalist" controversy, citing among other things the fact that he put his name to an internal collective prosecution statement in 2020 opposing then-Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae's request to discipline Prosecutor General Yoon.
