(LEAD) Retirement of head, vice head leaves leadership vacuum at anti-corruption probe body

▲ Yeo Woon-kook, the vice head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, speaks at a National Assembly session on Oct. 13, 2022. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) investigation body-leadership vacuum

(LEAD) Retirement of head, vice head leaves leadership vacuum at anti-corruption probe body

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info in last 4 paras)

SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) -- The vice head of the state anti-corruption investigation office was set to retire from his position on Sunday, leaving a leadership vacuum at the body whose chief retired earlier in the month.

The move by Yeo Woon-kook, the vice head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), came just nine days after CIO head Kim Jin-wook retired after a three-year term.

Kim and Yeo took office as the inaugural head and vice head at the CIO, launched under the previous Moon Jae-in government.

Amid no progress in the procedures to pick their successors, however, Kim Sun-kyu and Song Chang-jin, the chiefs of the CIO's first and second investigation departments, will temporarily act as the CIO chief and vice chief, legal sources said.

The candidate recommendation committee for CIO chief has not convened since the last meeting in Jan. 10, where the panel failed to finalize the two final candidates to recommend to President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The panel's next meeting, the seventh in the latest recommendation process, is slated for Feb. 6.

Even if the panel succeeds in nailing down two CIO chief candidates for recommendation, the leadership vacuum could persist due to the time needed for the president's official nomination and the parliamentary confirmation hearing.

During the six previous meetings, Oh Dong-woon, a former judge currently working as a lawyer, has been mentioned as one of the possible CIO chief candidates, earning recommendations from five of the panel's seven members.

The CIO was launched to independently investigate corruption cases involving former and current public officials, including the president, lawmakers and prosecutors, as the only investigative body, besides the prosecution, endowed with the authority to indict.

In his inauguration speech in 2017, Moon had vowed to create an agency capable of "working as significant checks and balances" against the prosecution, which at that time was the only agency with the power to prosecute.

Three years into its existence, however, the CIO has come under skepticism for sluggish performance, with none of its three indictment cases resulting in a guilty sentence. Two of the cases ended up in acquittal while the third case is still under trial.

None of the CIO's requests for arrest warrants were granted by courts so far.

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