Kim Ji-yong Named Final Candidate to Lead South Korea’s Major Crimes Investigation Office

Kim Ji-yong, a former prosecutor, has been nominated to become the first chief of South Korea’s Major Crimes Investigation Office, which is scheduled to launch on October 2.

Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Ho-joong said on the 7th that he had decided to recommend Kim to the president. The president will make the final appointment after Kim goes through a confirmation hearing in the National Assembly.

The office’s candidate recommendation committee, chaired by Lee Ju-won, selected four candidates on the 4th: attorneys Kim Kwan-jung, Kim Ji-yong and Moon Hong-joo, along with Lee Yoon-je, a law professor at Myongji University. Kim, a graduate of the 28th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, served as chief of the Chuncheon District Prosecutors’ Office and head of the Criminal Affairs Department at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office under the Moon administration.

In July 2021, Kim was part of the prosecutorial chain of command when the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office indicted former Blue House civil affairs secretary Lee Kwang-cheol and others in the case involving the alleged illegal withdrawal of former Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-eui. The Supreme Court later acquitted all defendants in the case. Shortly after the Yoon Suk Yeol administration began in 2022, Kim received a reassignment to serve as deputy chief prosecutor at the Gwangju High Prosecutors’ Office, a move viewed as a demotion, and then resigned.