The ruling and opposition parties on the 24th criticized the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) with one voice.
The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee held a National Assembly audit of the CIO at the National Assembly that day. Park Gee-won of the Democratic Party of Korea said, "With 25 prosecutors, the CIO has detained two people and booked six in the five years since its launch," and criticized, "It is worse than even the Haenam branch of the prosecution, so why does it exist?"
He added, "The cases of Board of Audit and Inspection Chairperson Choi Jae-hae and Secretary-General Yoo Byung-ho were left untouched, and only now are they waving after the bus has already left," and demanded, "For the sake of putting the CIO on the right track, Minister Oh should resign."
Park Kyun-taek of the same party also said, "It has already been nearly three years since Board of Audit and Inspection Chairperson Choi Jae-hae was reported to the authorities," and pointed out, "Why do you just watch as people like Chairperson Choi and Board of Audit and Inspection member Yoo Byung-ho, who is said to be the worst 'arrogant tyrant since Dangun,' complete their terms and exercise their powers?"
The People Power Party raised the argument that the CIO is useless, citing the cases of former Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office Inspection Department Chief Han Dong-soo and Eastern District Prosecutors' Office Chief Lim Eun-jeong. Joo Jin-woo of the People Power Party said, "You must not conduct lenient investigations just because the administration has changed," and added, "The CIO was created so it would not be swayed by those in power."
Joo said, "In the five years since the CIO was launched, it has spent a budget of 77.6 billion won, but there have been only six indictments," and pointed out, "There are two finalized rulings, and both are acquittals. It spent 12.5 billion won per indictment, and at this level it is a tax-eating hippo." Kwak Gyu-taek of the same party said, "At this point, if we dismantle the prosecution, it seems we should dismantle the CIO together," and stated, "I think dismantling the CIO is the right answer."
Within the Democratic Party, there was also a suggestion to specialize the CIO in investigations of judges and prosecutors instead of dismantling it. The subjects of the CIO's investigations are the president; the National Assembly speaker and lawmakers; the chief justice and justices of the Supreme Court; the president and justices of the Constitutional Court; judges and prosecutors; police officers of commissioner general rank or higher; and general-grade officers, among others.
Kim Ki-pyo of the Democratic Party proposed to CIO Minister Oh Dong-woon, "Wouldn't it be better for the CIO to hand over other high-ranking official cases to the envisioned Serious Crimes Investigation Agency or the National Office of Investigation (NOI) and focus its investigations exclusively on judges and prosecutors?"
Law and Judiciary Committee Chairperson Choo Mi-ae also agreed with Kim's proposal. Chairperson Choo asked Minister Oh, "Rep. Kim's question is very meaningful," and asked, "How about concentrating (investigations) only on all crimes by judges and prosecutors?" She then asked, "In this case as well, is organizational expansion necessary?" Minister Oh answered, "Our position is that (the CIO) should investigate up to judges, prosecutors, and those working in investigative agencies."