On Oct. 2, South Korea's criminal justice system, under which prosecutors held both investigative and indictment powers, will pass into history. Under the revised Criminal Procedure Act and related laws, prosecutors will lose not only their direct investigative authority but also their powers to conduct supplementary investigations and to direct police investigations, while police will exercise investigative authority independently. Prosecutors will focus on filing and maintaining indictments, and may ask police to conduct supplementary investigations where inquiries fall short. The Prosecution Service will close, and a new Public Prosecution Office and a Serious Crimes Investigation Agency will open, taking charge of indictments and of investigations into six categories of serious crime — including corruption, economic offenses and drugs — as well as the offense of distorting the law. It is the biggest overhaul of the criminal justice system in 78 years.
Even as concerns mount over public safety and the swelling power of the police, preparations for the launch could hardly be more haphazard. The posts of justice minister and national police commissioner sit vacant, and the first head of the Public Prosecution Office has not even been appointed. Kim Ji-yong, a lawyer who previously served as deputy chief of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office, was recently tapped as the nominee to lead the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, but the appointment process has stalled amid opposition from hard-liners within the ruling bloc.
Conditions on the front lines are more dismal still. Neither systems nor staffing can be found in a complete state anywhere. Even after two rounds of special hiring, the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency has failed to fill about 30% of its authorized headcount of 2,874. Investigators who were hired reportedly had not been told where to report for work until two days before the agency opened. The police force numbers close to 140,000, but skilled specialist investigators are in severe short supply. It is doubtful whether the new agency and the police can handle the caseload they are taking over in bulk from prosecutors stripped of investigative authority. Even the veteran prosecutors who have stayed on until now are resigning in waves.
Because the new criminal justice system is being launched in haste, a serious gap in public safety and criminal investigation looms immediately. Legal circles have gone so far as to propose delaying the revised Criminal Procedure Act and related measures by at least a year, but the government and the ruling party have not budged. Even at this late stage, President Lee Jae-myung must step to the front, check the situation daily until the system settles, and mobilize the full national capacity of the legislative, judicial and executive branches to shore it up. Above all, appointing the heads of the four core institutions of the criminal justice system is urgent. Relevant government agencies and ruling-party lawmakers on the competent National Assembly standing committee must also resolve to fulfill their political and legal responsibility for the current situation.
