Lee Jeong-hyeon Appointed New Supreme Prosecutors' Office Deputy Chief… To Serve as Acting Prosecutor General

▲ Lee Jeong-hyeon, Chief of the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office

Lee Jeong-hyeon (58, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 27), Chief of the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office, has been appointed as the new Deputy Prosecutor General of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to act as the head of the prosecution, a post currently vacant.

The Ministry of Justice announced through a press release today (the 22nd) that "a personnel reshuffle will be implemented effective September 23 to resolve the vacuum caused by the resignation of the Deputy Prosecutor General and to prepare without a hitch for the launch of the Prosecution Service."

This comes approximately two months after former Supreme Prosecutors' Office Deputy Chief Koo Ja-hyun expressed his intent to resign on July 31 in protest of the passage of a bill in the National Assembly abolishing the Prosecution Service's supplementary investigation authority.

With the office of the Prosecutor General remaining vacant for a prolonged period and the vacancy of the Minister of Justice also extending, this is a so-called "one-point" personnel appointment aimed at resolving piling pending issues.

As the Prosecution Service is set to be abolished and the Prosecution Service is scheduled to launch on October 2, the role of the Prosecutor General as its chief is essential. However, since there is no way to appoint a Prosecutor General while even the Minister of Justice position is vacant, it is interpreted as a desperate measure to appoint the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to perform the acting duties.

In the prosecution, the Deputy Prosecutor General had been acting in the role because no Prosecutor General has been appointed since the current administration took office. After former Deputy Chief Koo Ja-hyun expressed his intention to resign, Park Gyu-hyung, head of the Planning and Coordination Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, had been serving as the "acting official's acting official."

Newly appointed Deputy Chief Lee Jeong-hyeon was born in Naju, Jeollanam-do, graduated from Korea University, passed the bar examination, and was appointed as a prosecutor at the Northern Branch of the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office (now the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office) in 1998.

In 2018, while serving as a senior prosecutor at the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, he indicted former President Chun Doo-hwan without detention on charges of defamation of the deceased related to the May 18 Democratization Movement.

He was heavily favored during the Moon Jae-in administration, being promoted to chief prosecutor in 2020 and serving as the head of the Public Security Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, but was subsequently demoted to a research fellow at the Legal Research and Training Institute in the first prosecution reshuffle under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

He had also been mentioned as a candidate for the inaugural Prosecutor General of the Lee Jae-myung government and was promoted to Chief of the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office in November of last year.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

※