Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office chief Park Cheol-woo on the 2nd called for reflection within the prosecution.
In a New Year's address that day, Park said, "For an organizational culture like our admirable traditions to become a means of change and to be recognized by the public, there is just one thing that needs to be added: reflection."
Park said, "When each and every member of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office equips themselves with a similarly reflective mindset, the organizational culture of our prosecution, formed over decades, will become an excellent means to change the prosecution and a new driving force that can be acknowledged by the public."
Park said, "We urgently need a reflective attitude that objectively examines ourselves and our organization—whether, even unconsciously, there was any speech or behavior that could seem arrogant; whether, while asserting the exercise of fair prosecutorial authority that meets the public's expectations, we are in fact failing in the cases right in our hands to break free from past practices or any bias; whether there was any excess or deficiency; whether we are perhaps making decisions merely to avoid blame; and whether we have been steeped in inertia or complacency."
Citing British thinker Edmund Burke's words, "A state without the means of change is without the means of preservation. Without such means, it may even be exposed to the risk of losing those parts of the constitution which it most ardently wished to preserve," Park said, "If you substitute the prosecution or an organization for 'state,' the meaning will strike you even more clearly."
He added, "The prosecution, for the sake of the public, scrutinizes matters closely and does not shy away from heated debates with seniors and juniors alike to reach the most fair and rational conclusion," noting, "As the justice minister said, it must be 'a prosecution the people can trust and rely on,' and everyone knows this well."
Park also urged, "When each and every member equips themselves with a 'reflective mindset,' the organizational culture formed over decades will become an excellent means to change the prosecution," and "Please do not forget that every member is the very protagonist of prosecutorial reform."