Moon Jae-in signs bills cutting Korea's prosecution down to size

President Moon Jae-in opens his last Cabinet meeting at the Blue House on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday signed into law the controversial bills that will strip the prosecution of its investigative powers.

The signing was done at Moon’s last Cabinet meeting before his term ends on May 9.

“The laws that we are promulgating today will reduce the scope of the prosecution’s investigation,” Moon said. “This is to ensure the basic rights of the people while guaranteeing that the authorities in power are faithful to their original roles according to the principles of checks and balances and democratic control.

“Despite efforts and achievements, concerns about the political neutrality, fairness and selective justice of the prosecution have not been resolved,” Moon said. “It has been evaluated that it is unlikely for the prosecution service to gain the public's trust. I think that’s why the National Assembly has gone one step further to strip the prosecution of its investigative powers.”

With the signing into law, the prosecution will be stripped of its investigative powers after four months.

Earlier Tuesday, the National Assembly passed the second of the two bills, a revision of the Criminal Procedure Act.

The bill was passed three minutes after the plenary session of the National Assembly opened, with 164 voting in favor, three against and seven abstentions. 106 lawmakers from the People Power Party (PPP) at the session boycotted the vote. Of the 164 in favor, 160 were from the Democratic Party (DP), while three were independents who were once lawmakers of the DP. The last vote in favor came from Kwon Eun-hee of the People’s Party. Members of the minor Justice Party, who had voted in favor of the revision to the Prosecutors’ Office Act last Saturday, opted to abstain from the vote.

The revision to the Prosecutors' Office Act was passed in a plenary session of the National Assembly last Saturday, with 172 lawmakers voting in favor of the bill.

The bills to revise the Prosecutors’ Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act were first proposed by the DP weeks ago in an effort to scale back the powers of the prosecution. At one point, the DP and PPP came to a compromise on the bills, which fell through when the PPP backed away from the agreement. It feared the public would think politicians had colluded in order to avoid being investigated by the prosecution.

Last Wednesday, the DP pushed the bills through the judiciary committee without the PPP’s support.

On Wednesday, the PPP filed for an injunction with the Constitutional Court to block the bills, and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office also announced that it would file for an injunction.

PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong and the prosecution asked President Moon to veto the bills, which he ignored.

In response to the signing of the laws, Park Sung-jin, deputy prosecutor-general of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, said, "The Supreme Prosecutors' Office will actively respond by reviewing all possible legal action, including constitutional litigation."

Kwon Soon-bum, senior prosecutor of the Daegu High Prosecutors’ Office, resigned in protest of the laws. As resignations of more senior prosecutors are expected to follow, the prosecution is trying to prevent a mass resignation.

“As a high-ranking prosecutor, I took responsibility for this situation by submitting a letter of resignation to protest this unfair legislation,” Kwon said. “Politicians have blocked the prosecution’s investigative powers so that we can’t probe public offices and election crimes. They talked of reducing the prosecution’s authority but then abruptly deprived complainants of the right to object.

“There is no concern about controlling the police force in which power is concentrated,” Kwon went on. “Delays in police investigations and the suffering of the people as a result were also not considered by lawmakers.

“It is not even worth mentioning the unconstitutionality and injustice of the legislative process,” he continued. “The fact that the country’s national dignity and human rights are retreating is just devastating. History will judge us poorly.”

The National Police Agency announced Tuesday that it will “minimize any discomfort felt by the people” by “establishing a responsible investigation system and continuously expanding the investigation infrastructure so that criminal investigations can be conducted without any setbacks.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]