South Korea splits its Prosecution Service in two with four leadership posts unfilled

The appointment chain runs in one direction. The justice minister recommends the prosecutor general, so the vacancy at the ministry holds up the post below it, according to en.sedaily.com ^[5]. Koo Ja-hyun, the deputy chief of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, had been serving as acting prosecutor general. He submitted a resignation in July in protest of amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act, and it has not been accepted ^[4]. That leaves the minister, the prosecutor general, the acting prosecutor general and the Major Crimes Investigation Agency's first commissioner: four unfilled posts across the two agencies ^[16]. If nothing changes, en.sedaily.com reports, the Public Prosecution Office opens under an "acting for the acting" arrangement ^[6].

The Ministry of Justice's public notice on the 4th would keep prosecutors at the Public Prosecution Office at the current 2,292. Figures across the ruling bloc called for a review, arguing that both the quota and the organization should shrink as investigative functions disappear ^[7]. The headcount is the one quantity anyone has put on paper, and the notice proposes no change to it ^[17].

The work before launch has to be done in order. Opening the office requires finalizing an organizational structure, then assigning prosecutors and investigators to offices at each level. Internal rules and guidelines on case handling and the maintenance of prosecutions have to be revised to fit the new system ^[8]. Departments and posts must be redesigned to reflect the elimination of investigative functions, and specific positions and staffing levels have not been shared with front-line offices ^[9]. Legal experts had expected that plan and the personnel moves behind it to advance once the nominee cleared confirmation hearings ^[10].

At the second agency the fight is about one man's record. Parts of the ruling bloc and the Rebuilding Korea Party have taken issue with commissioner nominee Kim Ji-yong's 24 years in the prosecution. They also object to his opposition, while serving as a chief prosecutor, to legislation stripping prosecutors of investigative powers ^[12]. They have raised allegations that he was involved in the emergency travel ban case concerning former Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-eui and in the indictment of prosecutor Jung Jin-woong over an abuse-of-authority assault case ^[13]. Kim Min-jae, vice interior minister and head of the agency's launch preparation team, spoke at a separate briefing on the 17th. Of four people indicted in the Kim Hak-eui case, he said, three had already been investigated and indicted before the nominee took up his post as head of the criminal division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office ^[14]. He also cited an instance in which the nominee ordered a reinvestigation of a case involving relatives of former Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol ^[15].

en.sedaily.com does not say which categories of case move to the Major Crimes Investigation Agency ^[18].

Two readings fit what is on the record. In the first, the agencies open on schedule and the structure, the assignments and the rewritten case-handling rules arrive weeks later; prosecutors then work inside a new institution under guidance drafted for the old one ^[8]. In the second, the stalled personnel decisions are leverage in the quota fight, and the appointments move quickly once the ruling bloc gets a number below 2,292 ^[7]. The record holds a launch date, a list of unfinished steps and one published figure of 2,292 ^[1][7]. None of that decides between them.