Prosecution officials who applied to join South Korea's new Major Crimes Investigation Agency are backing out just over a month before its launch. About a quarter of applicants have withdrawn, citing a shortage of investigative infrastructure such as office space and computer networks, along with concerns about heavy workloads stemming from broad jurisdictions.
The agency's launch preparation team, under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, accepted withdrawal requests from special-appointment applicants through the 31st of last month, according to legal circles on the 1st. A total of 2,375 people applied during the special appointment period from the 7th to the 20th of last month, including 104 prosecutors and 2,271 prosecution investigators. Of those, 615 said they were withdrawing. Withdrawals were especially pronounced among those working in the greater Seoul area, including Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.
The lack of fully prepared investigative infrastructure a month before the launch appears to have played a role. The agency will begin operations with a headquarters and six regional offices nationwide, but some regional offices will have to use temporary quarters, and there are concerns that the case-processing computer network will not be fully operational at launch. Building out interrogation rooms, seized-evidence storage facilities and digital forensics equipment will also take time.
The expected workload is another burden. The agency will handle cases transferred from existing investigative bodies as well as newly filed major crime cases. The Seoul office in particular will cover not only Seoul but also Incheon, northern Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province, leading to forecasts that heavy caseloads will be unavoidable if cases pile up.
One prosecution investigator said, "I understand that in some departments, all of the applicants withdrew," adding, "The withdrawal rate appears to be high in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas."
The pressure has grown for the agency, which had planned to stabilize its early investigative structure with experienced prosecution personnel. Accounting for the withdrawals, the remaining pool of special-appointment applicants stands at just over 1,700, meaning roughly 1,000 more people will have to be recruited through other channels to fill the total authorized headcount of 2,874. The preparation team plans to review the remaining applicants and finalize appointments this month.
The preparation team said it plans to run parallel hiring tracks — mid-career competitive recruitment of police officers, lawyers and patent attorneys, along with additional special appointments for prosecution service employees — so that the October 2 launch proceeds without disruption.
