Kim has been under disciplinary review on suspicions that he leaked to local media outlets classified information that he collected while working as a special inspector at Cheong Wa Dae between July last year and November this year.

The inspection division will soon make a formal recommendation to the top prosecution office, it said.

The disciplinary board of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office will make the final decision on Kim.

Kim is also accused of having inappropriate encounters with a businessman and a senior executive at major mobile carrier KT Corp. in breach of the anti-graft law.

Among other suspicions, he is believed to have sought to influence the outcome of a police investigation involving one of his acquaintances. Kim was ordered to return to his original post at the prosecution last month.

Since then, Kim has released various information he claims to have obtained while working for Cheong Wa Dae, which included information about civilians and former bureaucrats who should not have been subject to Cheong Wa Dae surveillance.

Kim claims to have surveilled such persons on direct orders from his superiors at Cheong Wa Dae, an accusation strongly denied by the presidential office.

He has also insisted that he was wrongfully removed from his Cheong Wa Dae post because he kept tabs on those who have close ties to President Moon Jae-in, including the sitting ambassador to Russia. (Yonhap)