Lee Jae-myung has finally avenged his grudge, and the prosecution office that once dominated South Korea has been sent to its demise by his own hands.

The South Korean National Assembly recently held a plenary session and passed an amendment to the "Political Organization Act," with the most controversial provision being the "abolition of the prosecution office."

[The South Korean National Assembly recently held a plenary session and passed an amendment to the "Political Organization Act"]

According to the amendment, the government plans to abolish the prosecution office and establish a new Public Prosecution Office and a Major Crime Investigation Agency (referred to as the "Major Crime Investigation Bureau"), achieving a complete separation of the prosecution's functions in filing charges and conducting investigations.

The Major Crime Investigation Bureau will be under the supervision of the Minister of the Ministry of Public Security, while the Public Prosecution Office will fall under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Justice. Both the abolition and establishment of these institutions will have a one-year transition period. The passage of this amendment means that the South Korean prosecution office, which has existed for 78 years, will become history by September next year.

[The South Korean prosecution office, which has existed for 78 years, will become history by September next year]

The first question is: Why did South Korea cut down the prosecution office and split it into two institutions?

In the past, the South Korean prosecution office simultaneously held the powers of "investigation" and "prosecution." That is, the prosecution office could investigate cases on its own and also decide who to file charges against.

For a long time, the prosecution office frequently intervened in political and chaebol-related cases, forming a "shadow power." In the recent decades of presidential changes in South Korea, almost every outgoing president has been investigated or even sentenced by the prosecution, which is known as the "Blue House curse."

South Korean chaebol company executives are often targeted by the prosecution: although there are indeed corruption issues, the selective prosecution and political motives of the prosecution have always been questioned by the outside world.

The prosecution office can pressure political figures through investigation and can also "turn a blind eye" by not prosecuting them—for example, Lee Jae-myung himself was once prosecuted by the South Korean prosecution for "illegally using government funds."

[Lee Jae-myung himself was once prosecuted by the South Korean prosecution for "illegally using government funds"]

When Moon Jae-in took office, the South Korean government finally began to push for major reforms of the prosecution office, limiting its excessive power.

In January 2020, the South Korean National Assembly passed a revised law, clearly stating that the police had the right to end an investigation, and the prosecution could only return or supplement the case within limited scope. This meant that the police no longer completely obeyed the prosecution in the investigation phase, shaking the latter's position of superiority.

On April 30 and May 3, 2022, that is, the last month before Yoon Suk-yeol took office, the South Korean National Assembly passed amendments to the "Prosecution Office Act" and the "Criminal Procedure Act" consecutively. Both bills aimed to separate the prosecution's investigative and prosecutorial powers and prohibited it from directly handling certain major cases.

Previously, the South Korean prosecution office had six direct investigation areas, including corruption crimes, economic crimes, elections, official misconduct, military projects, and major disasters. However, after Moon Jae-in's "cut," the prosecution office could only directly investigate "corruption crimes" and "economic crimes."

Moon Jae-in pushed for the reform of the prosecution office so urgently because he knew that after Yoon Suk-yeol took office, he would inevitably reverse the progress.

[During Yoon Suk-yeol's term, many internal personnel of the prosecution office were assigned to key positions in the government]

The result proved to be exactly that. During Yoon Suk-yeol's term, many "pro-Yoon" prosecutors and internal personnel of the prosecution office were assigned to key positions in the government, and the president himself emphasized "strengthening the prosecution authority"—at that time, the left-wing opposition even sarcastically called South Korea the "Prosecution Republic."

Under this context, the reforms carried out by the Lee Jae-myung government on the prosecution system were not only institutional division, but also completed Moon Jae-in's unfinished goals. More importantly, they aimed to "eliminate the power base of the old factions within the prosecution office." By dismantling the original structure, the old factions lost their organizational support—this is a common strategy in politics.

Therefore, we can see that during the National Assembly vote on the amendment to the "Political Organization Act," the conservative opposition party "People Power Party" collectively abstained from voting to express their opposition. However, due to the majority of seats held by the ruling party "Minjoo Party" in the National Assembly, even if the conservatives voted entirely against it, they could not prevent the amendment from passing.

Returning to the amendment itself. In addition to separating the prosecution's investigative and prosecutorial powers, another important point worth noting is the two new institutions formed after the separation—the Major Crime Investigation Bureau and the Public Prosecution Office, which are respectively under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice.

[In the traditional prosecution system, the current government often faces resistance when investigating former government officials]

Originally, the South Korean prosecution office functioned as an independent power organ, and had a certain "closed-loop" strength in the system. The government's ability to directly intervene was very limited, and the two sometimes even faced opposition.

Now, through bold restructuring, Lee Jae-myung has broken the existing balance of power, directly integrating the prosecution power into the government management system, taking the dominance of the judicial system away from traditional legal elites, and allowing politicians and senior bureaucrats to have greater influence in the judicial field.

This is most directly reflected in the case of Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife. When the current government investigates former government officials, especially core individuals, it often encounters resistance under the traditional prosecution system, facing internal protection chains and intervention problems.

If the prosecution power can be more directly placed within the government's operable system, then using these powers to investigate key figures of the previous administration can gain more institutional convenience.

To carry out an investigation into Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife, Lee Jae-myung specially established an independent prosecution team for the "Internal Rebellion and Treason Case" and an independent prosecution team for the "Kim Geun-hee Scandal Case," in order to bypass potential issues such as opaque operations, protection chains, and scheduling interventions that might arise from the traditional prosecution system.

The construction of the new prosecution system still requires time, and there is a one-year transition period—but Yoon Suk-yeol's case, Lee Jae-myung cannot wait for a year.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7554982899322225193/

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