On the 10th, frontline district prosecutors requested additional explanations from Acting Prosecutor General Noh Man-seok regarding the decision to forgo an appeal in the case involving private contractors in the Daejang-dong development corruption scandal.
That morning, 18 frontline district chief prosecutors, including Park Jae-eok of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, Park Hyeon-jun of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office, and Park Yeong-bin of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, said in a post on the prosecution's intranet (e-Pros) titled "We request additional explanations from the acting prosecutor general," stating accordingly, "The position disclosed by the acting prosecutor general does not include any concrete circumstances or legal reasons for forgoing an appeal and is not convincing."
In the post, the chief prosecutors wrote, "Over the acting prosecutor general's instruction to forgo an appeal of the first-instance partial acquittal in the Seongnam Daejang-dong development corruption allegations case, not only the prosecution but the entire country has been plunged into major controversy," and "The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office chief expressed an intention to resign the day after instructing the investigation and trial team to forgo an appeal, saying that although the clear position was to appeal, the chief ultimately instructed the team to forgo an appeal out of respect for the acting prosecutor general's instruction to forgo, and that the resignation was to take responsibility for failing to persuade the acting prosecutor general to adopt the appeal position."
They continued, "By contrast, according to the statement distributed yesterday by the acting prosecutor general, after receiving a report on the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's position to appeal and referring to the Justice Ministry's view, the acting prosecutor general, under his responsibility and after consultation with the Seoul Central chief, comprehensively considered the purpose and content of the ruling, the appeal criteria, and the course of the case, and, after careful deliberation, instructed that no appeal be filed."
They added, "The position disclosed by the acting prosecutor general does not include any concrete circumstances or legal reasons for forgoing an appeal and is not convincing," and "The chief prosecutors responsible for maintaining prosecutions at frontline offices again request from the acting prosecutor general a detailed explanation of the circumstances leading to the instruction to forgo an appeal and the legal grounds."
The statement listed the names of Park Jae-eok, chief of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office; Park Hyeon-jun, chief of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office; Park Yeong-min, chief of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office; Park Hyeon-cheol, chief of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office; Lim Seung-cheol, chief of the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office; Kim Chang-jin, chief of the Busan District Prosecutors' Office; Seo Jeong-min, chief of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office; Lee Man-heum, chief of the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office; Yu Do-yun, chief of the Ulsan District Prosecutors' Office; Kim Hyang-yeon, chief of the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office; Mun Hyeon-cheol, chief of the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office; Shin Dae-gyeong, chief of the Jeonju District Prosecutors' Office; Park Hyeok-su, chief of the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office; Lee Eung-cheol, chief of the Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office; Jeong Su-jin, chief of the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office; Min Gyeong-ho, Deputy Chief of the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office (prosecutor-general level); Lee Jun-beom, Deputy Chief of the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office (prosecutor-general level); and Park Gyu-hyeong, Deputy Chief of the Daegu High Prosecutors' Office (prosecutor-general level).
However, Kim Tae-hun, chief of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, Lim Eun-jeong, chief of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, and Jeong Jin-u, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, who expressed an intention to resign on the 8th over the controversy, were not included in the statement.