Busan education chief acquitted on appeal in preferential hiring case

Kim Seok-jun, the superintendent of education for Busan, was acquitted on appeal Thursday in a case stemming from his alleged preferential hiring of four dismissed teachers affiliated with the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union. The Busan District Court's Criminal Division 4-3, presided over by Chief Judge Kim Do-gyun, overturned the lower court's guilty verdict and found Kim not guilty.

Kim had been indicted in December 2023 on charges of handpicking four teachers dismissed over a 2018 "Unification School" incident organized by the union's Busan chapter, then directing personnel officials to conduct what appeared to be an open competitive hiring process but was in fact a predetermined special appointment. The trial court sentenced him last December to eight months in prison, suspended for two years — a penalty that would have stripped him of his post. It ruled that the special hiring criteria had been narrowly drawn to cover only those dismissed for education-related activities, that all four applicants were hired, and that the application window had been too short to constitute a genuine open competition.

The appeals court reached a different conclusion. It found that the dismissed teachers faced a deadline for reinstatement, making it necessary to give them a minimum opportunity to return to their posts. It also found that the four had sought to bridge differences between the two Koreas through dialogue and had not engaged in acts constituting anti-state conduct, and therefore could not be regarded as people who should be barred from reinstatement. The court also acknowledged that the teachers had faced financial hardship after years out of work and had a legitimate need to restore their professional standing.

The court was particularly critical of what it described as an abuse of investigative and prosecutorial authority. "Despite the fact that the process followed lawful procedures and efforts were made to satisfy the requirements under relevant law, facts that were falsely perceived were reflected in the indictment as a result of an unreasonably prolonged audit," the court said. It also raised the possibility of outside interference, saying the indictment had been "severely distorted and exaggerated" and that self-reflection was warranted.

Kim issued a statement immediately after the ruling. "I am grateful to the court for delivering a wise verdict grounded in the substantive truth, and to the Busan education community and citizens who have supported and stood by me throughout," he said. "I hope that Thursday's ruling brings the related controversy to a close."