With the revision of the Government Organization Act, bills to establish the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Agency, which will replace the Prosecution Service set to be abolished in Oct., are expected to be unveiled next week.
According to government sources on the 9th, the Prosecution Reform Promotion Team under the Prime Minister's Office is in the final stages of work, aiming to give advance notice of legislation for the establishment of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Agency as early as the 12th. Before the advance notice, the team plans to hold a closed-door session this afternoon to brief advisory committee members from academia and the legal community on a draft of the bill.
The bill will include functions and powers centered on the organizational structure of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Agency and the procedures for handling cases. It is also said to include a plan to create a new position within the Serious Crime Investigation Agency in addition to investigators. A government official said, "The team is reviewing and adjusting the details until the very end."
Whether to allow supplementary investigation authority for prosecutors affiliated with the Public Prosecution Agency, a key point of contention, has not yet been finalized. Supplementary investigation authority refers to the power for prosecutors to request that police and others make up for insufficient investigation or to supplement it themselves in order to decide whether to indict a case that has been transferred to them.
In this regard, the team said, "Whether to recognize supplementary investigation authority will be reviewed during the process of revising the Criminal Procedure Act after sufficient discussion following the preparation of the Public Prosecution Agency bill." This means the issue of supplementary investigation authority will be fleshed out not in the current establishment bill but at the stage of revising the Criminal Procedure Act in the future, requiring at least two to three months of follow-up discussions.
Earlier, lawmakers from the ruling bloc, including the Democratic Party of Korea, added that they had voiced concerns about the possibility of allowing supplementary investigation authority, saying, "Under no circumstances should prosecutors retain direct investigative authority in any form, including supplementary investigation authority."