President Lee Jae-myung on the 16th, regarding the prosecutorial reform bill, said, "The party and the government created a revised plan through a party-government consultation, and since it was adopted as the ruling party's official position, this revised plan is not the government's plan but the party-government consultation plan," adding, "We must not allow an opening or justification for a counterattack by leaving room for a constitutional controversy just to showcase someone's hard line."
On this day, the president posted on his X (formerly Twitter), titled "Some concerns about prosecutorial reform are groundless," and said, "Separating investigation and indictment and excluding the Prosecution Service from investigations have already been finalized as state tasks and are irreversible," adding, "Whether to name the head of the Public Prosecution Office as the 'prosecutor general' as stipulated in the Constitution or as the public prosecution chief, and whether to dismiss all prosecutors and selectively reappoint them, are not directly related to the separation of investigation and indictment (excluding prosecutors from investigations)."
Within the Democratic Party, some hard-line lawmakers on prosecutorial reform are opposing the bills to establish the Serious Crimes Investigation Office and the Public Prosecution Office, which are pending in the National Assembly, arguing that the government plan is a "Prosecution Service restored" bill. The president's post appears to target these hard-liners.
The president said, "There is no need to give vested interests that should be dismantled a justification for counterattack and a chance to regroup because of excessive bidding for hard lines detached from the essence and measures that are not urgent," adding, "We should recall the historical experience of missing a decisive reform opportunity due to excess and ultimately allowing the return of vested interests."
The president said the government plan is already a "party-government consultation plan" reached through consultations between the party and the government, adding, "This party-government consultation plan is not an immutable, finalized plan; if necessary, it can be discussed and revised again during the legislative process."
However, he said, "Any such re-revision must help enforce the grand principle of separating investigation and indictment and excluding the Prosecution Service from investigations, and must not, even by the slightest chance, be intended to showcase someone's hard line or serve any other purpose unrelated to the essence of prosecutorial reform."
The president specifically pointed to the argument to change the title of prosecutor general to public prosecution chief and the argument to dismiss all prosecutors and then selectively reappoint them. He said, "The Constitution designates prosecutors as the主体 of prosecutorial affairs and the prosecutor general as the person with overall responsibility for prosecutorial affairs, so it is common sense that the name of the agency in charge of prosecutorial affairs is the Prosecution Service," adding, "Having changed the Prosecution Service to the Public Prosecution Office, saying we must now change the prosecutor general to the public prosecution chief and prosecutors to public prosecutors is going too far."
He continued, "With the criteria for reappointment unclear, there is no clear reason to shoulder the burden of dismissing all prosecutors and selectively reappointing them, even while creating room for a counterattack with claims about turning it into a private organization."
The president said, "It is important to restrict the Prosecution Service's investigative powers when it abuses them, but it is also important to protect crime victims from case cover-ups by investigative bodies such as the police and to regulate corrupt offenders," adding, "The issue of supplemental investigations in cases transferred after investigations conclude is set to be discussed in depth later when amending the Criminal Procedure Act, which stipulates prosecutorial command over investigations. Given the potential for abuse, I hope it will be thoroughly discussed."