The Ministry of Justice decided to fully reconsider the expansion project for the Supreme Prosecutors' Office National Digital Forensic Center (NDFC). This is because the scientific investigation department will be abolished when the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is changed to the Public Prosecution Service on Oct. 2.
The Ministry of Justice said in a notice on the 5th that it made this decision in light of the transfer of on-site forensic functions to the Serious Crimes Investigation Service (SCIS) and the planned organizational and personnel restructuring following the launch of the Public Prosecution Service and SCIS.
Built in 2008, the NDFC has conducted examinations and analyses of various scientific evidence needed for investigations and trials, from digital forensics to DNA, video, document, and psychological analysis. According to the prosecutors' yearbook, in 2024 alone there were 10,063 cases received for DNA, document, psychological, and video analysis examinations and inspections.
As the NDFC aged and demand for evidence analysis increased, the Ministry of Justice has pursued an expansion project since 2021. With a total of 53 billion won, it sought to expand the NDFC to three underground floors and six above-ground floors on the parking lot site across from the annex of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office building in Seocho-gu, Seoul.
However, according to the draft enacted "Public Prosecution Service organization" that the Ministry of Justice released the day before, the scientific investigation department is set to disappear on Oct. 2.
The organization will be downsized from a chief prosecutor level to a deputy chief prosecutor level, and the four existing divisions—the digital investigation division, the cyber and technology crime investigation division, the forensic analysis division, and the DNA and chemical analysis division—will be reduced to three: the forensic appraisal division, the advanced psychological analysis division, and the digital forensic systems division. As the scientific investigation department is being overhauled this extensively, the Ministry of Justice says it has no choice but to fully reconsider the NDFC expansion plan.
The transfer plan for the Public Prosecution Service also appears to have had an impact. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said it will move the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Gender Equality to Sejong in the first half of next year and will also relocate the Public Prosecution Service after a new government complex is built. If a new Public Prosecution Service building is constructed in Sejong, the NDFC could also be newly built.
In legal circles, some regret the abolition of the scientific investigation department. A lawyer who formerly served as a Director General-level prosecutor said, "There needs to be an organization that can independently cross-check evidence analysis results from other agencies, including the National Forensic Service, to ensure checks and balances," adding, "As the rank of the organization's head is lowered from chief prosecutor level to deputy chief prosecutor level, the status and influence of the evidence appraisal function could weaken even within the Public Prosecution Service."