According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, voiced concern at the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee audit on Oct. 13 about plans to narrow his agency's remit. Democratic Party committee members are pushing a bill limiting the office's targets to judges, prosecutors and judicial police; if it passes, probes of the president and other powerful figures would fall to the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency under the Interior Ministry. Oh called this 'a very worrying part' and agreed when People Power Party lawmaker Yun Sang-hyun asked whether independence could suffer if that agency took over probes of lawmakers. He argued his office is the only independent body and should keep its power to investigate the powerful and gain more staff.

At the Interior Committee's audit of Gyeonggi Province the same day, Gov. Choo Mi-ae stated her opposition to nominee Kim Ji-yong. The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that she deflected in the morning, saying an answer would be inappropriate, then argued in afternoon questioning that Kim is not only a pro-Yoon prosecutor but unfit as a public official for the post, and said staying silent while knowing this would be a historical error. This is Choo's personal assessment, and the grounds she cited were not all substantiated at the audit.

The Nominee's Written Answers and the Im Eun-jung Inspection

In written answers to his confirmation hearing, obtained by the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Kim said investigative agency staff, regardless of rank, should refrain from words and actions that could appear contrary to political neutrality, citing publicly backing or opposing a party or political position and publicly criticizing other senior officials' personnel decisions. If appointed, he said he would establish internal discipline and a culture that puts political neutrality and objectivity first.

The answer touches on public remarks by Im Eun-jung, head of the Gwangju branch of the agency. Im has opposed the nomination since President Lee Jae-myung named Kim last month and, on her first day at work on Oct. 6, criticized him as someone who had stamped approval on a past discreditable matter. On Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung's order, the agency's headquarters opened an inspection of Im on Oct. 12. Asked about disciplining her, Kim said it was inappropriate for a nominee to discuss punishing a specific member; asked about reassigning her, he said he regards her as the person to lead the Gwangju office and would work with her to settle the organization.

On the 2018 case at issue, accounts differ. Im claims that Kim, then head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's first inspection division, brushed aside inspection complaints about the alleged cover-up of a sexual assault case involving former prosecutor Jin Dong-gyun. Kim counters that a fact-finding panel, a Seoul Central District prosecutors' probe and later appeal and adjudication procedures established the facts sufficiently, and worries that a third party reopening a case with a victim could cause that victim pain. This outlet could not independently verify the facts of the case, and the nominee faces dispute over the propriety of past duties, not criminal allegations.

In sum, there are two strands: the institutional question of how to secure independence when the new agency handles probes of presidents and other powerful figures, and the question of the first chief nominee's qualifications and management of internal conflict. The graft office chief worries about the former; rebuttals from ruling-party lawmakers backing the bill were not confirmed in the Kyunghyang Shinmun report. Whether Kim will be appointed and when the bill will be handled are not known.