Sim Woo-jung (26th Judicial Research and Training Institute) has reportedly submitted her resignation as Attorney General on the 1st. Sim has been in office since September last year, with a term (2 years) still about 1 year and 2 months remaining.
Sim is expected to issue a statement at 3 p.m. that day. Her retirement ceremony is scheduled for the 2nd. It has been about 3 years since an Attorney General resigned during their term, following Kim Oh-soo, former Attorney General, who stepped down in May 2022 under the Moon Jae-in administration, citing opposition to the Democratic Party of Korea's prosecutorial reform legislation.
According to the legal community that day, Sim reportedly submitted her resignation to the Ministry of Justice the previous day. This is just 10 months after taking office in September last year. She will not even complete half of her 2-year term as Attorney General.
Sim's resignation comes after Jeong Seong-ho, a nominee for Minister of Justice who is expected to lead prosecutorial reform, was appointed, and Bong Wook, Chief Civil Affairs Secretary to the President, was named. Although the confirmation hearing for the nominee has not yet been held, the Ministry of Justice plans to proceed with personnel changes for the currently vacant senior prosecutor positions as early as that day.
Previously, several senior prosecutors have submitted their resignations to the Ministry of Justice. Notable examples include Lee Jin-dong (28th), Vice Administrator of the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office; Yang Seok-jo (28th), Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office; Shin Eung-seok (29th), Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office; and Byeon Pil-geon (30th), Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of Justice.
Meanwhile, although the Attorney General's 2-year term is stipulated in the Prosecutors' Office Act of 1988, this marks the resignation of 16 Attorney Generals during their terms, including Sim.