Koo Ja-hyeon, acting prosecutor general, publicly pushed back for the first time after the Democratic Party of Korea decided to put a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act, which includes abolishing the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights, on the National Assembly's plenary session agenda on the 30th. Koo is also known to be reviewing his future, including resignation, should the bill pass.
According to legal circles on the 29th, Koo issued a statement asking the National Assembly to reconsider after the Criminal Procedure Act revision passed the legislation review subcommittee of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee that day. "I cannot help but feel a heavy heart and deep concern over the content and direction of the discussions on revising the Criminal Procedure Act, including the abolition of the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights, currently underway in the National Assembly," Koo said.
He went on to criticize, "If the prosecutor's effective functions of checking, supplementing, and correcting the investigative work of primary investigative agencies disappear, the Republic of Korea's criminal justice system will collapse." This marks the first time Koo has issued an official position on the abolition of supplementary investigation rights since he took office as deputy chief prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and began serving as acting prosecutor general.
"A majority of the public believes supplementary investigation by prosecutors is necessary," Koo said. "The continued concerns raised across society, including legal circles and women's and victims' groups, show that this discussion should not simply be about eliminating the prosecution's authority but should proceed in a direction that protects the people from crime."
He urged, "In the discussion process to come, including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's full session, we must sufficiently examine what a criminal justice system for the people should look like," adding, "All citizens must be firmly protected by the law, and there must be no citizens left to plead their grievances."
With the prosecution and the broader legal community's calls to retain supplementary investigation rights not reflected in the revision, Koo is reportedly reviewing the option of tendering his resignation should the bill pass the National Assembly's plenary session. As Justice Minister Jeong Sung-ho has also expressed his intention to step down for similar reasons, there are concerns that if Koo also resigns, an unprecedented situation could arise in which the heads of both the Justice Ministry and the prosecution are vacant at the same time.
In particular, if the Criminal Procedure Act revision passes, more than 1,000 subordinate statutes must be overhauled and a new investigation and indictment system must be designed. However, if the leadership of both the Justice Ministry and the prosecution is left vacant simultaneously, considerable confusion is expected to be unavoidable in the process of follow-up legislation and system implementation.
Backlash also continued within the prosecution. Kang Baek-shin, a prosecutor at the Daegu High Prosecutors' Office, wrote in a post on the prosecution's internal network that day, "It occurred to me that there may be people who take pleasure and shed tears of joy at the paralysis of the prosecution's constitutional functions," criticizing that "this revision appears to be legislation that puts the finishing touch on such a change for the worse."
