Ex-President Moon 'regrets' appointing Yoon prosecutor general during his term

Former President Moon Jae-in expressed regret over his appointment of the President Yoon Suk Yeol as prosecutor general in 2019.

On July 25, 2019, Moon, from the liberal party the Democratic Party of Korea, promoted Yoon, then head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, to be the nation's top prosecutor, stating that Yoon was the right person to undertake prosecutorial reform. Yoon, in March 2021, quit the job. A year later, he won the presidential election, as the nominee of the conservative People Power Party.

In an interview with Hankyoreh, a local daily, Monday, Moon said that he "takes full responsibility for the birth of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration," and "sincerely apologizes" to the people.

As for why he chose Yoon at the time, the former president explained that "among the four candidates for prosecutor general, Yoon was the only one who spoke in support of prosecutorial reform, while the other three expressed their opposition to it."

Yoon is currently suspended from presidential duties and is being held at the Seoul Detention Center for imposing martial law on Dec. 3, supposedly to protect the nation from what he described as "antistate forces." He is on trial for impeachment at the Constitutional Court and is awaiting the start of his criminal trial on charges of leading an insurrection and committing abuse of power later this month.