The Candidate Recommendation Committee for the Serious Crimes Investigation Administrator (the recommendation committee) on the 4th selected four nominees for the inaugural Administrator and recommended them to Minister Yoon Ho-jung of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. They are Attorney Kim Gwan-jung, head of Kim Gwan-jung Law Office; Attorney Kim Ji-yong of Apex Law Firm; Attorney Moon Hong-ju of Ilseon Law Firm; and Professor Lee Yun-je of the Department of Law at Myongji University.
The Minister will choose one final nominee from among them and submit the recommendation to President Lee Jae-myung.
The recommendation committee convened at 2 p.m. that day and conducted candidate reviews. The committee carried out a public recommendation process for one week from the 19th to the 26th of last month. From the submitted recommended persons, it compiled 23 names for the Minister after comprehensively considering investigation expertise, fairness, human rights awareness, and organizational management capability.
The Minister returned 11 names to the recommendation committee as candidates for further review, excluding 12 who did not consent to the screening process. From these, the committee evaluated factors including expertise in investigating serious crimes, fairness and human rights awareness, and leadership to stably lead a newly established organization, and selected four nominees to recommend to the Minister. The nominees each received at least a two-thirds vote of the members in attendance.
Recommendation Committee Chair Lee Ju-won said, "To find the right person to properly realize the prosecutorial reform aim of separating investigation and indictment, all commissioners carried a heavy sense of responsibility and reviewed fairly," and added, "We recommended the optimal nominees after broadly considering the various opinions submitted through public recommendations and the qualities and capabilities required of the inaugural Serious Crimes Investigation Administrator."
Based on the recommendation committee's results, the Minister will soon select one final nominee and submit the recommendation to the president. After a National Assembly confirmation hearing, the president will make the final appointment of the inaugural Serious Crimes Investigation Administrator. The Minister said, "We will do our utmost in the follow-up procedures so that the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency can successfully launch on Oct. 2."
The Serious Crimes Investigation Administrator serves a two-year term and cannot be reappointed. Candidates must have at least 15 years of experience working in investigation or legal affairs and must have no disqualifying reasons as defined by law.
The Serious Crimes Investigation Agency to be headed by the Administrator is an investigative body that will exclusively handle the seven major serious crimes—corruption, economic crimes, narcotics, defense procurement, national protection, cyber, and legal distortion—starting Oct. 2. It will launch with a headquarters and six regional offices in Seoul, Suwon, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, and Gwangju, with a total staff of 2,874. Of these, the authorized number of investigators responsible for direct investigations is 2,567.