On the 17th, Presidential Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Hong Ik-pyo, speaking about the government's push for "prosecution reform," said, "In the case of the French Revolution, there was ultimately a history of reaction due to excessive leftist adventurism, wasn't there," and "a great many people lost their lives." He meant that in a race for hard-line purity, reform momentum could be lost. It is in the same vein as President Lee Jae-myung effectively telling hard-liners in the ruling camp that "excess is not acceptable."
In an SBS interview that afternoon, Hong explained the president's remarks and position on prosecution reform and said this. He also said, "To carry out more sustained, stable, and results-driven reform, he was emphasizing the need for restraint, humility, and a sense of responsibility." The remarks came as criticism from hard-liners in the Democratic Party of Korea over the government's recent prosecution reform plan has spilled into a ruling party–presidential office rift.
The previous day, the president met with first-term Democratic Party lawmakers and, mentioning various reform tasks such as those involving the prosecution, reportedly urged them to "work in a way befitting the ruling party." Hong also said, "The opposition party is fine just opposing," adding, "It is the role of the government and ruling party to persuade and craft integrative alternatives." He went on, "What he conveyed was that it would be good if the Democratic Party now impressed upon itself that it is the ruling party and carried out its legislative activities accordingly."
The day after the dinner with first-term lawmakers, the president wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "The separation of investigation and indictment and the exclusion of the prosecution from investigations will be firmly pursued as a clear state agenda," adding, "For any reason, unnecessary excess that creates obstacles to reform is not acceptable."
The Democratic Party adopted as its party line the bill to establish the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Prosecution Service, prepared through party-government-presidential office consultations, and decided to pass it at the plenary session on the 19th. In the final draft of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency Act, it: ▲ requires the agency to notify the Prosecution Service when it initiates an investigation; ▲ removes the authority of Prosecution Service prosecutors to direct special judicial police officers; and makes the status of Prosecution Service prosecutors equal to that of other administrative officials so they can be dismissed without impeachment.
As for the final draft of the Prosecution Service Act, compared with the government bill submitted to the National Assembly early this month, it: ▲ deletes "the prosecutor's authority to direct and supervise special judicial police officers"; ▲ revises the three-tier structure names from "Prosecution Service–High Prosecution Service–District Prosecution Service" to "Prosecution Service–Metropolitan Prosecution Service–District Prosecution Service"; and ▲ deletes the authority to direct execution among prosecutors' duties.