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Ministry of Justice to conduct retest for prosecutor exam after content leak

Published: 01 Dec. 2025, 16:59

The Ministry of Justice building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi is seen on Dec. 14, 2022. [YONHAP]

The Ministry of Justice will administer a retest for the final exam in a course for prospective prosecutors, conducted at 25 law schools across the country on Saturday, following allegations of a prior leak of exam content, the ministry said Monday.

The course, titled Prosecution Practice, is a key subject directly tied to the selection process for new prosecutors.

“In relation to the final exam for Prosecution Practice I, it was confirmed that prior to the test, students at a particular law school were shown a list of criminal charges — with certain charges emphasized using shading or other markings — that fell outside the scope previously agreed upon by instructors,” said the Justice Ministry. “Some of those highlighted charges appeared in the actual exam.”

The Justice Ministry dispatches prosecutors from the Judicial Research and Training Institute to teach the Prosecution Practice course at law schools, given its direct connection to the prosecutor selection process.

Each prosecutor typically teaches at three to four schools, and those dispatched are expected to adhere to a uniform scope of instruction. It is standard practice to provide the same lecture content to all institutions.

University students are seen in a lecture hall at a university in Busan on Sept. 1. [YONHAP]

However, one prosecutor reportedly shared a lecture handout during a lesson on official guidelines for indictments and non-indictments that included several dozen specific charges, marked for emphasis. Some of those exact charges were used in questions on the November exam on Saturday.

Dispatched prosecutors are also involved in creating exam questions for the course, according to the ministry. After the exam, candidates raised concerns over fairness, following which the ministry launched an investigation and ultimately decided to hold a retest in December.

“This incident involved lectures that deviated from the agreed-upon scope and could have significantly impacted the fairness of the assessment,” the ministry said. “The retest will take place this month, with scheduling to be finalized in consultation with the law schools.”

When asked whether the prosecutor in question gave undue advantage to a specific school or if disciplinary proceedings were under review, a ministry official said, “We cannot confirm that at this time.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SUK GYEONG-MIN [[email protected]]