Liberal activist scholar bent on reform of prosecution

Tapped to head the Justice Ministry, Park Sang-ki is an activist scholar who has been writing regularly on ways to reform the country’s powerful law enforcement authorities.

“Prosecutors are not above the people. Their exclusive rights to indict are endowed by the people for them to serve the people,” is what the nominee, a law professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University, has written many times when prosecutorial reform is being discussed.

In other writings, Park, 64, has criticized those in power for taming elite prosecutors with promotions and demotions, stressing that personnel management of public prosecutors must be free of political influence.

Park’s such beliefs appear to be in sync with President Moon Jae-in’s vision for judicial reform, as well as that of Cho Kuk, the professor-turned-presidential secretary for judicial affairs.

Born in Muan, South Jeolla Province, in 1952, Park graduated from Yonsei University in Seoul and holds a doctoral degree in criminal law from University of Gottingen in Germany. Since finishing his studies in 1987, he has been teaching at his alma mater.

While his career continued as a scholar, he also took on the role of an activist and currently sits as the co-chief of Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice.

The nominee has previously worked for the presidential advisory committee on the Supreme Court and for the presidential committee on judicial reform in 2005 and 2006 under the late President Roh Moo-hyun.

Named 11 days after the voluntary resignation of the former nominee Ahn Kyung-hwan, Park is another candidate who is not from the prosecution and did not consider the state bar exam.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)