The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee held a full meeting on the 18th and, led by the ruling party and opposition figures aligned with it, passed bills to establish the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (Jungsu Agency) and the Prosecution Agency. The People Power Party opposed the bills and did not take part in the vote. The bills to establish the Jungsu Agency and the Prosecution Agency are follow-up legislation to the so-called prosecution reform pushed by the Democratic Party of Korea.
The Jungsu Agency Act sets out matters necessary for overall operations, including the organization, scope of duties, and personnel of the newly established Jungsu Agency after the abolition of the Prosecution Service. Installed under the Minister of the Interior and Safety, the Jungsu Agency will mainly investigate six major crimes—▲corruption ▲economic ▲defense industry ▲narcotics ▲insurrection and treason ▲cybercrime—and will also investigate cases of the crime of distorting the law, as well as crimes committed while in office by officials of the Prosecution Agency, the police, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), and the courts. A government-drafted clause requiring the Prosecution Agency to be notified when the Jungsu Agency begins an investigation was deleted from the final version.
The Prosecution Agency Act abolishes the prosecution's authority to direct and supervise special judicial police officers and limits prosecutors' powers by law. The Prosecution Agency will handle only indictments, and the duties of Prosecution Agency prosecutors are defined as ▲deciding whether to bring charges and matters necessary to maintain them ▲matters necessary for requesting warrants ▲consultation and support with judicial police officers on criminal investigations ▲requests to the courts for the proper application of laws ▲direction and supervision of the execution of judgments ▲conduct or direction and supervision of lawsuits with the state as a party or participant and of administrative litigation ▲recovery of criminal proceeds, and international criminal judicial cooperation.
The Jungsu Agency Act and the Prosecution Agency Act take effect on Oct. 2, and the Prosecution Service and the Prosecutors' Office Act are abolished on the same day. The People Power Party strongly opposed handling the Jungsu Agency and Prosecution Agency bills at the full meeting that day. People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won, addressing Minister of Justice Jung Sung-ho, said, "You will go down in history as the worst Minister of Justice who dismantled the prosecution. Aren't you ashamed? The worst of the worst, the most flawed Prosecution Agency has been born," and argued, "In the end, President Lee Jae-myung caved to hard-liners to obtain the cancellation of his indictment, and that is what this Prosecution Agency bill is about."
The Democratic Party said it was "a historic day when the Prosecution Service was abolished." Choo Mi-ae, the Democratic Party's chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said, "On this historic day when the Prosecution Service was abolished, we passed the law to newly launch the Prosecution Agency. The prosecution neither settled its past nor prevented an insurrectionist from leaning on prosecutorial power to brazenly commit insurrection."
The Democratic Party plans to handle the bills to establish the Jungsu Agency and the Prosecution Agency at the plenary session on the 19th.