The ministry's decision comes after a group of senior prosecutors, following a 13-hour Friday meeting, decided to drop the case, the South Korean news agency reported.
Han, who was South Korea's first female prime minister, served in this capacity from 2006 to 2007, and was imprisoned from 2015 to 2017 over accepting bribes in the sum of around 900 million Korean won (approximately $795,000) from a businessman while in office. However, it emerged last year that the proof given at Han's court hearing in 2011 was faked by the businessman's fellow inmates.
The Supreme Prosecutors Office dismissed the charges last month but Justice Minister Park Beom-kye ordered the the case to be further investigated to see if there was any "unreasonable decision-making" in the process, according to the news agency.
Han refused to accept charges and has claimed innocence since the case started, saying that the charges against her must have been forged as part of political revenge by a conservative government against the former liberal administration of late President Roh Moo-hyun.
