Minister Jung Sung-ho of the Ministry of Justice on the 9th addressed backlash within the ruling bloc over the government's "prosecution reform" plan, saying, "The slogan of reform may be ours, but the criminal justice system belongs to all the people."
The Minister said in a Facebook post that day, "It is important to implement our position, but at the same time, it is also important to design the system meticulously so that no victim's injustice remains and that crime cannot sleep," adding, "This is the sense of responsibility we must have as the governing force." "We" is interpreted as referring to the Lee Jae-myung administration and the Democratic Party.
The Minister said, "The Lee Jae-myung administration has already produced achievements in prosecution reform that even past administrations failed to accomplish." As achievements, he cited: ▲abolishing the Prosecution Service's "right to initiate direct investigations" and "ex officio investigation authority" ▲after abolishing the Prosecution Service, splitting it into the "Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (Jungsucheong)" under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the "Public Prosecution Agency" under the Ministry of Justice ▲allowing dismissal of prosecutors through disciplinary action ▲creating the "political involvement offense" for prosecutors of the Public Prosecution Agency ▲introducing the "law distortion offense," among others. Except for the law distortion offense, these are included in the government's Public Prosecution Agency Act and Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Act bills.
The Minister also said this is "a historic achievement that no previous democratic government has achieved," calling it "an unprecedented narrowing of prosecutorial power and a complete institutional break from the political prosecution of the past."
He went on to explain, "The government bills for the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Act and the Public Prosecution Agency Act recently submitted to the National Assembly are to realize this, and they are bills created through focused government deliberation that also substantially reflected the Democratic Party's revised opinions in Feb."
Regarding criticism raised within the ruling bloc about the two bills, the Minister said, "Some quarters are expanding and misinterpreting certain provisions simply because they differ from their views and are driving them as anti-reform; such challenges do nothing to aid normal deliberation or national unity. They also differ from the facts." He added, "We promise to complete prosecution reform for the people."
Some hard-line lawmakers within the Democratic Party are openly criticizing the government-drafted Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and Public Prosecution Agency bills. Choo Mi-ae, who chairs the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, posted an article titled "On the government bill" on Facebook, arguing, "The Prosecutors' Office Act of the Prosecution Service's prosecutor unity under the prosecutor general has changed only the title to the Public Prosecution Agency Act." Kim Yong-min, the ruling party's secretary on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, hosted a National Assembly press conference where seven party member groups urged the scrapping of the government's Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and Public Prosecution Agency bills.
Jung Chung-rae, the Democratic Party leader, regarding hard-line intra-party backlash to the government's Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and Public Prosecution Agency bills, said, "It will go well, quietly and well-coordinated behind the scenes," adding, "For areas that fall short, the party holds legislative power, so coordination is possible." He also said, "Prosecution reform is the flag of the Lee Jae-myung administration and the Democratic Party, and something akin to our symbol."
President Lee Jae-myung, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that day, said, "Even when carrying out necessary reforms, we must be careful not to produce the result of burning down the thatched house to catch bedbugs by condemning everyone wholesale and making all into targets of reform," adding, "Please understand that this is, in my own way, the result of much deliberation to carry out smoothly both of the two tasks that are hard to reconcile—national unity and reform."