(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Cha Min-ji and Choi Yun-seon = 2,375 people, including prosecutors and investigators from the Prosecutor's Office, applied for special appointment to the Serious Crimes Investigation Office (Serious Crimes Investigation Office), which will be launched in October. Of these, it appears that more than 100 people applied to be prosecutors.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security's Serious Crimes Investigation Office Opening Preparation Team announced that it received applications for special appointments to the Serious Investigations Office from prosecutors and investigators belonging to the Prosecutors' Office from the 7th to 6pm on the 20th, and that a total of 2,375 people applied.
This corresponds to 82.6% of the total number of 2,874 members of the Heavy Water Administration.
The preparation team evaluated this as a meaningful figure in that prosecutors and investigators voluntarily chose to carry out heavy investigations in a situation where the size of the reduction in the number of prosecutors' offices has not been determined as the organization and number of personnel of the Public Prosecution Office have not yet been confirmed.
However, considering that it may affect personnel management in the future, the preparation group decided not to disclose details such as the number of applicants by job type such as prosecutors, investigators, and general workers, the number of people by rank, and the list.
Based on the submitted application documents, the preparation team will select candidates for special appointment in September, taking into account desired work location, experience, and expertise, and will appoint them on October 2, the launch date of the Heavy Water Administration.
As for the manpower not filled through this special appointment, additional special appointments will be made for prosecutors and employees of the Public Prosecutors' Office, taking into account the size of the reduction in the number of prosecutors at the Prosecutors' Office, which will be determined in the future according to the organization of the Public Prosecution Office.
We plan to recruit through career competitive recruitment targeting police officers, lawyers, accountants, cyber technology and financial analysis experts, etc.
According to the legal community, as of 3 p.m., about three hours before the deadline, the number of prosecutors who applied to the Heavy Investigations Office was known to be around 30 to 40.
However, due to the influx of applicants towards the end of the application deadline, the final number of applicants was found to be around 100.
In particular, it is reported that there are many deputy chief prosecutors in the 36th and 37th classes of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, who are at the level of chief prosecutors, and who have been in the ranks for more than 10 years and have not been demoted.
Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office Chief Lim Eun-jung, who has been considered a leading reformist within the prosecution, and Suwon High Prosecutors' Office Chief Prosecutor Moon Ji-seok, who raised the suspicion of 'covering up the Coupang investigation', also applied to the Central Investigation Office.
In addition, it is known that many prosecutors who were dispatched to the Insurrection Special Prosecution Team and Kim Kun-hee's Special Prosecution Team were included.
According to the appointment decree, prosecutors who are transferred to the Central Investigation Agency will be appointed as level 1 investigators at the district prosecutor level and level 2 equivalent investigators at the deputy chief and deputy chief prosecutor levels, depending on their previous position and legal experience.
Other prosecutors are appointed as level 3 investigators if they have more than 10 years of legal experience, and level 4 investigators if they have less than 10 years of legal experience.
The Central Investigation Agency investigates seven major crimes, including corruption, economy, defense projects, drugs, civil war and foreign exchange, national protection crimes, cyber crimes, and law distortions. It is comprised of a total of 2,874 people, including 2,567 investigators and 307 general public officials.
Kim Min-jae, head of the preparation team, said, “The Central Investigations Office is a key institution that will lead the prosecution reform of separation of investigation and prosecution, which is a demand of the times.” He added, “We are grateful to the public officials of the Prosecutors’ Office who voluntarily supported the Central Investigations Office, and we will proceed with follow-up procedures without a hitch to launch a stable organization.”
