The acting Prosecutor General, Noh Man-seok, who is under pressure to resign from within the prosecution due to the decision not to appeal the first trial ruling on the Daechang-dong corruption scandal, arrived at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 12th.
In an interview at his home in the late afternoon on the previous day, Noh explained his decision to step down, stating, “I thought leaving would help the organization settle quickly. Arguing that I did nothing wrong at this point would not benefit the organization.”
Noh shared, “The four months as an acting prosecutor felt longer than my 20 years as a prosecutor, and the events in the last four days felt longer than those four months,” expressing it felt like “ten years.”
He also hinted at disagreements with the current government on handling the case, saying, “Everything that was prosecuted by the previous administration has become an issue for the current one, making it difficult for the current prosecution to accept the demands from that side. They are trying to erase it, but we cannot.”
Regarding responsibility aimed at the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution leadership, he said, “They are all juniors and colleagues I liked. The Ministry of Justice, even if small, is like a country, and the prosecution is a part of that country, so we did it all for that.”
With Noh’s resignation, the prosecution is expected to operate under an acting-for-the-acting system. Once Minister of Justice Jeong Seong-ho recommends it and President Lee Jae-myung accepts the resignation, the position will be vacant, and Cha Soon-gil, the senior director within the prosecution, is likely to take over as acting Prosecutor General.