Im Eun-jeong becomes first internal probe target at newly launched serious crimes agency

Im Eun-jeong, chief of the Gwangju Regional Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, is set to face an internal investigation — becoming the first probe target at the agency just 10 days after its launch. Ministry of Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung ordered the audit after Im repeatedly and publicly attacked Kim Ji-yong, the nominee for director of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency. The agency has yet to begin any major criminal investigations due to incomplete infrastructure, yet an internal audit is now moving ahead first.

According to legal circles Monday, the agency plans to proceed with the audit of Im under the leadership of Heo Seong-hwan, the audit affairs officer, once the case is formally received following Minister Yun's directive Sunday. The position of audit inspector at the agency is currently vacant; under the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Act, the post is to be filled through an open recruitment process from either internal or external candidates.

Under the presidential decree governing the agency's organizational structure, the audit inspector is tasked with assisting the agency director on 13 enumerated matters, including investigations into misconduct by agency employees. Handling directives issued by the agency director on audit and inspection matters beyond those 12 enumerated items also falls within the audit inspector's duties.

Heo, who will oversee the audit of Im, is a former prosecutor who most recently served as a branch office chief before joining the agency. The agency said it intends to proceed with the audit of Im on the basis of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Act and the State Public Officials Act.

Kim was nominated on Sept. 7, and hard-liners aligned with the ruling camp have voiced daily opposition, labeling him a pro-Yoon Suk Yeol prosecutor and an opponent of prosecution reform. Im, who was appointed as a senior Grade 1 investigator at the agency, joined that criticism openly. At her first doorstep interview Tuesday, Im said Kim "has been found to have been involved in the chain of command in several unsavory incidents."

Im also requested to be called as a witness or reference witness at Kim's confirmation hearing scheduled for Wednesday. After her request was not accepted, she wrote on her SNS account Thursday: "I thought I would at least be summoned as a reference witness — I am very disappointed."

When legal circles began saying that publicly opposing a nominee amounted to a "challenge" against the appointing authority's personnel powers, Minister Yun announced Sunday on SNS that he would order an audit of Im. Under the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Act, the interior minister generally directs and supervises the agency director and its staff. On specific cases, the minister directs and supervises only the agency director.

Minister Yun's decision to personally name Im and order the audit has been interpreted as a move to enforce organizational discipline. Publicly attacking the director nominee is seen as not merely a challenge to personnel authority but an act that undermines the agency's ability to take root as an institution. Yun said Im appeared to be "mistaking the agency for a political organization." Im had previously been regarded within the prosecution as sympathetic to the current ruling camp and was tapped as a senior investigator when the agency launched — only to become its first audit target. After news of Yun's directive broke, Im wrote on Facebook: "It is deeply saddening and disheartening that I have become the agency's first audit target — though perhaps not quite as much as the fact that Kim Ji-yong, a former prosecutor, is the nominee to be its inaugural director."

Observers note, however, that a full audit leading to disciplinary proceedings will take considerable time. The agency has been working since its launch to build basic operational infrastructure while the director's post remains vacant. Some analysts say the audit order itself is a "political warning" ahead of Kim's confirmation hearing Wednesday.

The agency is currently sorting and assigning complaints and criminal referrals received since its launch, but has not yet begun interviewing persons of interest or conducting compulsory investigations. It also needs to complete the process of taking over cases from other agencies. While complaints are being received and reviewed, the lack of infrastructure means the work amounts to little more than preliminary review, sources said.

Unable to build its own criminal justice information system — known as KICS — the agency plans to borrow the police's system for now. Building its own KICS is expected to take about three years. Internal personnel arrangements at both the main office and regional branches remain incomplete. The agency has yet to fully prepare for actual investigations, yet an internal audit triggered by a public feud has become the first order of business.

Separately from the audit, Im also faces a criminal investigation. The civic group Sabeophangnyeok Baroseugi Citizen Action filed a complaint against Im at the agency Thursday, alleging defamation through the posting of false information under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. The group took issue with Im's claim that Kim, when he served as head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's first audit division in 2018, had buried a complaint related to sexual misconduct allegations against Jin Dong-gyun, a former prosecutor and brother-in-law of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon.

Reactions from legal circles toward Im have been cold. Ko Bong-suk, a prosecutor at the Seoul Metropolitan Public Prosecution Office, wrote on SNS Sunday: "How fortunate it was to have promoted her — you must keep filing complaints, referrals and audit requests without letting up. You absolutely cannot let your spirit be broken. If you do, one can only question the sincerity of what you claimed to be whistleblowing back in the prosecution."