The number of perjury and false accusation cases — two of the most prominent crimes obstructing the judicial system — uncovered by South Korean prosecutors plunged last year, according to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Officials attribute the decline to a shortage of frontline investigators caused by special counsel deployments and a wave of prosecutor departures. Concerns are growing that the investigative gap could widen further if prosecutors' direct investigation powers and supplementary investigation powers are fully abolished.
According to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on Monday, prosecutors detected 377 perjury cases last year, down 39.5% from 623 the previous year. Indictments also fell. The number of people sent to trial on perjury charges dropped 32.7% to 288 last year from 428 a year earlier. Detained indictments fell to 7 from 17, while non-detained indictments declined to 281 from 411.
The downward trend has continued this year. Perjury detections in the first quarter totaled just 59 cases. A simple annualized projection puts the figure at around 236 cases for the year, potentially below last year's level.
False accusation cases followed a similar pattern. Prosecutors detected 179 false accusation cases last year, down 38.3% from 290 the previous year. The number of people indicted on false accusation charges fell to 140 last year from 200 in 2024.
Until 2020, before the realignment of investigative authority between prosecutors and police, the number of perjury and false accusation cases detected by prosecutors topped 1,000 annually. After the realignment in 2021, however, detections fell to less than half. Last year, the figures dropped sharply as the launch of three special counsel teams led to prosecutor deployments and departures from frontline offices.
Legal experts warn that the prosecution's ability to counter perjury and false accusation crimes could weaken further if the abolition of the Prosecutors' Office in October — along with the elimination of prosecutors' direct and supplementary investigation powers — becomes a reality. Determining perjury charges often requires a comprehensive review of trial proceedings and existing evidentiary relationships, making the role of prosecutors who directly handle trials critical. Supplementary investigations by prosecutors have also played a key role in uncovering false accusations. Even when a fabricated complaint is not clearly identified during the police investigation stage, prosecutors frequently confirm false accusation charges while reviewing referred case records and conducting additional investigation or evidence gathering.
If both direct and supplementary investigation powers are abolished, the tools available to address perjury and false accusation crimes would be limited to supplementary investigation requests and re-investigation requests. Critics note, however, that such cases are difficult to classify as falling under the grounds for supplementary investigation requests — namely, "cases necessary for determining whether to file an indictment on a referred case or for maintaining the prosecution" — limiting their effectiveness. "Perjury and false accusations are not simply individual crimes but crimes that undermine trust in the criminal justice system," a senior prosecution official said. "Even now, detections are falling due to a shortage of personnel. If the investigative function disappears entirely, the so-called 'burial effect,' in which crimes are submerged beneath the surface, could grow even larger."
