Prosecutor to-be put on probation for assaulting cop while drunk

This photo shows a national flag of South Korea (left) and a flag symbolizing the nation's public prosecution service at Seoul Central Distrct Prosecutors Office headquarters in Seoul in March. (Yonhap)

A soon-to-be prosecutor has been placed on probation without a sentence for assaulting a police officer while under the influence of alcohol, a South Korean court ruled Tuesday.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down a suspended imposition of a fine of 3 million won ($2,300) to the woman, only identified by her surname Hwang. Prosecutors had asked the court for a six-month jail term for Hwang, who pleaded guilty during a trial.

Hwang did not respond to reporters' questions on her way out of the court.

The woman was indicted in March on charges of obstruction of official duty. According to legal sources, police were called to the scene as the woman was picking a fight with a passerby near a restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul, in January.

As police approached her, Hwang slapped a female police officer on the head, grabbed her hair and verbally abused her at the scene.

As a law school graduate, Hwang qualified to become a public prosecutor in November and took the bar exam in March, in what could have been her final step before beginning her career.

But the Ministry of Justice said in a statement Tuesday that Hwang had been expelled from the prosecutor training program, and her qualification will be revoked following due process.

The Justice Ministry sees the assault as a "serious issue that would stop (Hwang) from becoming a public prosecutor," it said in a statement, adding a personnel committee had already taken place.

By Son Ji-hyoung(consnow@heraldcorp.com)