Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office Chief Song Kang tendered his resignation to the Ministry of Justice on the 17th. Following Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Chief Park Jae-eok's resignation offer earlier that day, Song's decision to step down added to what appears to be a wave of resignations among senior prosecutors.
According to legal sources, Song indicated his intention to resign to the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
Before Song's resignation offer, Park also submitted his resignation to the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office the same day. On the 10th, Park was among 18 district prosecutors who issued a joint statement to Noh Man-seok, then acting prosecutor general, saying "further explanation is needed" regarding the decision to forgo an appeal in the Daejang-dong development corruption case.
Park and Song, who offered their resignations that day, are both in the 29th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, the same class as Noh Man-seok, the acting prosecutor general who retired on the 14th. Koo Ja-hyun, the new acting chief who officially began duties that day as Noh's successor, is also in the 29th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute.
The dual resignation offers are being interpreted as senior prosecutors pushing back with a "wave of resignations" after the government considered demoting to line prosecutors the chiefs who issued the joint statement over the decision to forgo an appeal in the Daejang-dong development scandal.
The ruling party has publicly demanded disciplinary action against them. Democratic Party of Korea floor spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung said in a briefing on the 14th, "The Minister of Justice should immediately launch an inspection into the prosecutors who defied orders and implement dismissal from posts and reassignment measures." On the same day, the Democratic Party also proposed bills to allow dismissing prosecutors without impeachment proceedings at the Constitutional Court (abolition of the Prosecutors' Disciplinary Act and amendment to the Prosecutors' Office Act).
The People Power Party, meanwhile, is pushing back, calling it "politics of fear." That day, Kim Do-eup, the People Power Party's policy chief, criticized the ruling party's demand for disciplinary action against the prosecutors who issued the joint statement, saying, "There are limits to shamelessness," and "It amounts to admitting that President Lee Jae-myung is at the top of the Daejang-dong corruption case."
Meanwhile, Minister of Justice Jung Sung-ho said on his way to work that day, regarding the ruling party's call for disciplining the chiefs, "We are considering what the best approach is," adding, "What matters most is stabilizing the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution for the people."