Ex-prosecutor Kim Ji-yong named top candidate for inaugural head of new serious crimes agency

With the Prosecution Service set to be dissolved in October and replaced by the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and a new Public Prosecution Service, attorney Kim Ji-yong, a former prosecutor, has been recommended as the agency's inaugural director.

Ministry of Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung announced Monday that he would formally recommend Kim, an attorney at Apex Law Firm, as the final candidate for the agency's first director.

"Candidate Kim is an investigation and legal expert who has accumulated extensive experience across criminal justice — including investigations, inspections and trials — and has also served in leadership positions at major investigative agencies, where he demonstrated the ability to manage organizations with stability," Yun said.

Yun added that "expertise in serious crime investigations, fairness and neutrality in the investigative process, and the experience and leadership needed to steer a newly established organization were judged to be of paramount importance." He expressed confidence that Kim would "build a Serious Crimes Investigation Agency that places the protection of citizens' rights above all else, drawing on his accumulated experience and capabilities."

The agency's director candidate recommendation committee had on Friday put forward four candidates: Kim Ji-yong, along with attorneys Kim Gwan-jeong and Moon Hong-ju, and Myongji University Professor Lee Yun-je. The pool was drawn from 11 applicants who consented to the screening process, out of 23 people nominated through a public submission period that ran from Aug. 19 to Aug. 26.

Born in 1968, Kim passed the bar examination in 1996 and began his career as a prosecutor at the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office. He went on to serve as head of the special investigations division at the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office, chief of the second trials division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, head of the first inspection division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, chief prosecutor of the Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office, head of the criminal affairs division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and deputy chief prosecutor of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office. He resigned in 2023 and has since practiced as an attorney at Apex Law Firm.

The agency's director is appointed by the president after the interior minister recommends a single candidate and the nominee undergoes a National Assembly confirmation hearing. The director serves a single, non-renewable two-year term.