Acting Prosecutor General Noh Man-seok said, "What I did was not servile, and it was an action I took to defend the prosecution in my own way." The remarks are seen as suggesting that a political judgment factored into the decision to drop the appeal in the Daejang-dong case, which triggered a revolt within the prosecution.
Noh met with reporters in front of his home in Gangnam District, Seoul, on the evening of the 12th, when he offered to resign. At the scene, he said, "Everything the previous administration had indicted has all become a problem for the current administration, and at the current prosecution service it is difficult to accommodate the demands from 'the other side.' The other side is trying to erase things, and we (the prosecution) are in a situation where we cannot erase them," adding, "I have been in frequent and heavy friction. Coordinating things was not easy."
"The other side" is interpreted to mean the current administration, and "trying to erase" is interpreted to refer to criminal cases related to President Lee Jae-myung.
He said, "I stepped down because I thought (the prosecution organization) would settle quickly if I stepped aside," and added, "At this point, insisting stubbornly that 'I did nothing wrong' would not benefit the organization, so I decided to step aside at this level." He went on, "Serving as vice chief for four months felt longer than my 20 years as a prosecutor, and what happened over four days felt longer than those four months," and "Until I left work yesterday, my mind changed a thousand, ten thousand times."
On the morning of the previous day, regarding his offer to resign, Noh reportedly told senior aides—Directors General (prosecutor-general rank) at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office—"I will think it over," then in the afternoon summoned the Directors General in person and expressed his intention to step down, saying he would take responsibility for the controversy.
With Noh offering to resign, the prosecution is expected to be run for the time being under an emergency "acting for the acting" system. The role of acting prosecutor general will pass to Cha Soon-gil, the planning and coordination Director General, who is the most senior among the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Directors General.