The rejection rate for arrest and search-and-seizure warrants that police requested from prosecutors has exceeded 30 percent, data showed.
According to materials submitted by the Ministry of Justice to People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jae-seop on Sunday, more than three out of every 10 warrants that police requested from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office between January and May this year were rejected.
A warrant rejection is a measure imposed when the grounds for suspicion are deemed significantly insufficient or when the warrant is judged unnecessary for an investigation. Unlike a return, a rejected warrant cannot be requested again in the same form.
Of 1,187 arrest warrants, 387, or 32.6 percent, were rejected. Of 23,165 search-and-seizure warrants, 7,427, or 32.1 percent, were rejected.
The warrant rejection rate has been on an upward trend since 2021, when the division of investigative authority between prosecutors and police took effect. The arrest warrant rejection rate steadily rose from 20.4 percent in 2021 to 30.4 percent in 2025. The search-and-seizure warrant rejection rate also rose 9.7 percentage points over the same period, from 17.2 percent to 26.9 percent.
Prosecutors attribute the rising rejection rate to "poor police investigations." They argue that while the division of investigative authority has increased police-led investigations, police investigative capabilities have not kept pace, leading them to request warrants recklessly. Some analysts also suggest that the right to request warrants has become the last line of defense for keeping police investigations in check. Within the police, meanwhile, there are complaints that prosecutors may be "venting frustration" ahead of the abolition of the Prosecutors' Office.
There are also cases in which investigations have drifted as prosecutors returned or rejected warrants. An arrest warrant for Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of Hybe, who faces charges of violating the Capital Markets Act, was rejected twice. An arrest warrant for Cha Ga-won, head of the entertainment agency One Hundred Label, who faces fraud charges worth some 30 billion won, was returned twice.
