Minister Jung Sung-ho of the Ministry of Justice, responding to criticism from the ruling camp over the bills to establish the Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Office that were made public on the 12th, said, "The most important thing is to make a country safe from crime, and it is important that as a result of prosecutorial reform the public is not inconvenienced."
The Minister attended a full meeting of The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee that day and answered this way to a question from Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Yong-min, who said the bills prepared by the government for the Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Office reflected prosecutors' opinions excessively.
Kim said, "There is significant public concern that forces obstructing reform may have drafted the prosecutorial reform plan." As criticism of the prosecution continued, the Minister said, "The prosecution under the Lee Jae-myung administration is not like that. It will not be run that way (like under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration)," adding, "The prosecutorial system itself is not entirely bad or inherently problematic."
The Minister continued, "Former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who came from the prosecutor general's post, initiated an illegal emergency martial law rebellion, and the prosecution failed to fulfill its role; I believe this is something that must be painfully reflected upon," and added, "However, in creating a system, I hope people will not take the view that all current members of the prosecution are criminals."
Earlier, Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Park Eun-jung also argued that too many with prosecutorial backgrounds, such as prosecutors and prosecution investigators, were included in the Prosecutorial Reform Promotion Team under the Prime Minister's Office. In response, the Minister said, "In an organization of more than 50 people, there are a dozen or so with prosecutorial backgrounds, but because this is reform of the prosecutorial system, they are offering opinions, not playing a leading role."
Under the Government Organization Act revised last year, the Prosecution Service will be abolished on Oct. 2 and the Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Office will be newly established. The Prosecutorial Reform Promotion Team gave advance notice of legislation for the Public Prosecution Office bill and the Serious Crimes Investigation Office bill that day. However, it did not decide whether to give supplementary investigation authority to prosecutors of the Public Prosecution Office, a focal point of attention, and said the matter would be discussed during the amendment process of the Criminal Procedure Act.
To Park's question, "Is it the Ministry of Justice's position to recognize supplementary investigation authority for prosecutors of the Public Prosecution Office?" the Minister said, "(The Ministry of Justice) does not have a clear position," adding, "We need to discuss how to ensure the completeness of investigations by the police, the primary investigative agency, and how the prosecution will maintain indictments." The Minister also said, "Because the police's primary investigations are not perfect, we need to discuss how to supplement them and the issue of directing investigations."