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Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon made a high-level appointment in the prosecution just one day after taking office.
Prosecutor Song Kyung-ho, who led the investigation of former Minister Cho Kuk, was appointed as the head of the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office.
It is an evaluation that special prosecutors called the Yun Seok-yeol division came to the fore.
Reporter Ahn Hee-jae on the sidewalk.
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First greetings from Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon.
Special prosecutors close to President Yoon Seok-yeol or Minister Han himself were on the front line.
Prosecutor Song Kyung-ho of the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office was appointed as the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to oversee the main investigation, and Lee Won-seok, the head of the Jeju District Prosecutor's Office, was appointed as the deputy chief of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, who was vacant.
Prosecutor Song served as the 3rd deputy chief of the Central Prosecutor's Office in 2019, under the direction of a minister who was then head of the anti-corruption department of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, and took charge of the investigation.
[Song Kyung-ho/then 3rd deputy chief of the Seoul Central Prosecutors
' Office (October 2019, National Assembly): To find out the objective truth, an urgent search and seizure was necessary in order to secure evidence (it was determined.)]
He is considered to be a close aide to President Yoon, who was then president.
Prosecutor Shin Yong-yong, who worked with President Yoon in the special prosecutor's team, was appointed as the head of the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutor's Office, and Prosecutor Kwon Soon-jung, who was a spokesperson for the Supreme Prosecutor's Office when President Yoon was president, was appointed as the head of the Planning and Coordination Office of the Ministry of Justice.
Members of the so-called Yun Seok-yeol division occupied key positions in the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution.
On the other hand, Senior Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon, Shim Jae-cheol and Lee Jeong-hyeon, and Prosecutor Lee Jung-su, who had resigned from the Moon Jae-in government, were pushed out to the Judicial Research and Training Institute.
[Kim Nam-geun/Chairman of the Special Committee on Reform and Legislative Minbyun: A culture of blind loyalty can be created, because it can be quite worrisome in terms of the rule of law administration and the basic democratic order…
.]
In a written comment, the Democratic Party criticized President Yoon, saying that it would create a prosecutor's republic by taking over the Justice Department and the prosecution with close prosecutors.
(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan, video editing: Yumira)