Prosecutor-General Han Sang-dae quit his job on Friday amid an internal turmoil at the powerful investigative body over reform directions.

“I am resigning today as the prosecutor general,” Han said at a press conference at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul. “I bid farewell now, leaving the reform of the prosecution and all other pending tasks to whoever succeeds me.”

President Lee Myung-bak accepted his resignation, the Presidential Office of Cheong Wa Dae said. Deputy Prosecutor-General Chae Dong-wook will act in his place until a new chief is appointed.

Han’s departure, which came after his own lieutenants turned their backs on him and demanded his resignation, leaves the elite law enforcement agency rudderless amid mounting external calls for reform. 

The top prosecutor had prepared a set of measures to overhaul his agency in a bid to regain the public’s trust and confidence, which in the end never saw the light.

The prosecutor community, known for its strong hierarchy, was thrown into turmoil late Wednesday, following the launch of an internal inspection by the SPO of Choi Jae-kyung, the head of the SPO’s Central Investigation Unit, in relation to an ongoing corruption scandal.

Choi allegedly advised Kim Kwang-jun, a senior prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office who has been indicted on bribery and influence-peddling charges, on how to handle the accusations against him.

Kim is accused of receiving 900 million won ($826,000) from Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind of Korea’s biggest-ever pyramid scheme, and Eugene Group, a mid-sized conglomerate, in exchange for favors.

Choi strongly protested the inspection, claiming that it was Han’s personal vendetta against him for calling for responsible action from the chief to end a crisis engulfing the prosecution.

Han’s reform package reportedly included a plan to dismantle Choi’s unit, which has been criticized for being swayed by political power. Choi on Friday said that he would also resign from the office soon.

The case involving Choi is one of the two scandals which made the prosecution, arguably the most powerful group in the country’s criminal justice system with exclusive rights to indictment, a prime target of reform.

In the other scandal, a trainee prosecutor at Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office is accused of having sexual relations with a female suspect whom he was interrogating. A SPO team investigating the case received flak after its request for an arrest warrant was denied twice by the court, which questioned the appropriateness of a bribery charge applied against the trainee prosecutor.

For politicians and many Koreans, Han’s resignation and the series of events that led to it seem to have reinforced the need for drastic measures for the embattled agency.

“The Saenuri Party and our presidential candidate Park Geun-hye will propose a package of strong measures to reform the prosecution. Through reform, we hope that public prosecutors would be reborn as trusted servants of the public,” the conservative ruling party’s spokesperson Chung Ok-nim said.

The camp of Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party, went further, calling for an apology from President Lee Myung-bak and the ouster of Justice Minister Kwon Jae-in and CIU head Choi.

“What we have seen in the prosecution is nothing but a struggle of prosecutors to protect their own vested interests,” the camp said in a statement. “The Moon Jae-in camp pledges to transform the prosecution into an authority that serves only the people.”

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)