With the launch of the Serious Crimes Investigation Office (Jung Su Cheong) and the Prosecution Office and the abolition of the Prosecution Service slated for October, legal experts said that "to prevent investigation delays and protect victims, prosecutors at the Prosecution Office need the authority to order supplementary investigations."
The Supreme Prosecutors' Office held the 6th Criminal Law Forum at its annex in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 10th and conducted presentations and discussions under the theme "Directions for reforming the prosecution system for the people."
Park Yong-cheol, a professor at the Sogang University School of Law, first gave a presentation on "Directions for reforming the prosecution system from a legal scholar's perspective." Park said, "Excessive challenges to the exercise of prosecutorial investigative authority generalize issues arising from a few special investigations to ordinary criminal cases, so caution is needed."
Park continued, "The claim that investigation and prosecution can be simply separated into the duties of police officers and prosecutors completely ignores the characteristics of criminal procedure," adding, "If prosecutors have only the right to demand supplementary investigations from the police, it will overburden the police and cause enormous delays throughout criminal proceedings."
Kim Bong-su, a professor at the Chonnam National University School of Law, noted that prosecution reform has revealed its limits as it became an end rather than a means. Kim said, "(The current direction of prosecution system reform) lacks institutional mechanisms or designs to curb the abuse of investigative powers," adding, "I am concerned that the main actor abusing investigative authority will simply shift from 'prosecutors' to 'police.'"
Attorney Park Hyeong-gwon of Shin & Kim LLC warned that if prosecutors' authority to order supplementary investigations is not recognized, responsibility for investigations and trials will become unclear. In fact, according to 2025 data from the Korean National Police Agency, the number of prosecutorial requests for supplementary investigations reached an all-time high of 110,623, and the request rate also rose to 14.7% from the previous 11%–13% range.
Park said, "This means cases are proliferating in which the police's initial investigation does not reach a level sufficient to sustain prosecution," adding, "If prosecutors lack authority to order supplementary investigations, they may forgo indictment due to deficient supplementary investigation by prosecutors or, even after indictment, it may be difficult to expect active efforts to sustain the prosecution."
Concerns were also raised about investigation delays. Attorney Jeong Su-gyeong of the law firm Ji Hyero said, "From the standpoint of crime victims, the most worrisome problem is the acceleration of investigation delays," adding, "Prosecutors at the Prosecution Office, who cannot conduct direct investigations, must request supplementary investigations from the Serious Crimes Investigation Office or the police, and just the time for documents to go back and forth in this process will take several months."
Jeong continued, "In cases where volatile digital evidence or witness testimony is crucial, delayed investigations ultimately lead to 'nonindictment due to insufficient evidence,' making it difficult to remedy victims' grievances."