[WORD_ON_THE_WEB] 'The same problem is likely to occur'

The prosecution has publicly opposed the Democratic Party’s push to strip it of its investigative rights, calling a meeting of regional chief prosecutors on Monday presided over by Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo.

“If the prosecution’s investigative power is abolished, there will no longer be meaning in performing my duties as prosecutor general,” Kim said. “I will not cling on to my position.”

The National Assembly passed an amendment to the Public Prosecutor’s Office Act in January 2020. As a result, the prosecution’s investigative rights have been reduced to six major crimes and those committed by public officials.

With less than a month before the inauguration of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, a former prosecutor general, the DP recently hastened its attempts to complete prosecutorial reforms, refocusing on a bill to completely strip the prosecution of its investigative powers — the same bill that Yoon protested when he announced his resignation as prosecutor general in March 2021.

#not_the_solution
“If you look at investigations done by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials or the police, you can see how sloppy and problematic they are. But you’re depriving the prosecution of their investigative power now? I don’t get that.”
“Will the problem be solved if we take the investigative power away from the prosecution? In the end, the same problem is likely to occur again in another group that claims investigative power.”

#the_prosecution's_failure
“This would not have happened if the investigation standards were fair from the very beginning. Since when were investigation standards set by the prosecution? Isn’t law supposed to be equal and fair for everyone?”
“This would not have happened if the prosecution had done well when it was given power. Currently, the prosecutors are not using their power properly.”

#prosecution_privilege
“The fact that the prosecution, a public group, has faced a collective backlash proves how much privilege the group is obsessed with.”

BY HWANG JAE-YOUNG, LEE JUNG-JOO [lee.jungjoo@joongang.co.kr]