South Korean ruling party divided over prosecution powers
· UPIJuly 13 (Asia Today) -- Opposition is growing within South Korea's ruling Democratic Party to a proposal that would completely eliminate prosecutors' authority to conduct supplementary investigations.
The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee continued reviewing an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act on Monday under Democratic Party leadership.
The proposed legislation would prevent prosecutors from conducting additional investigations after police refer a case to them.
Prosecutors would instead generally be limited to requesting that police conduct further investigative work when they find missing evidence, unanswered questions or other deficiencies in a case.
Lawmakers from the main opposition People Power Party did not attend Monday's subcommittee meeting as part of their boycott of parliamentary proceedings over a dispute concerning the allocation of committee chairmanships.
Rep. Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party, who chairs the committee's first legislative review subcommittee, plans to introduce separate legislation intended to address potential problems caused by abolishing supplementary investigations.
Concern is growing within the ruling party, however, that eliminating the authority without exceptions could leave crime victims inadequately protected.
Rep. Hong Ki-won plans to introduce legislation Tuesday that would continue to allow prosecutors to conduct supplementary investigations in certain cases.
The exceptions would cover voice phishing and other crimes that directly affect the public, as well as sexual violence, stalking and abuse targeting people with disabilities and older adults.
Rep. Park Beom-kye, a former justice minister, called on the party not to pass the legislation before its leadership convention.
"The Public Prosecution Office is scheduled to be replaced by the Public Prosecution Service in October, so we have time until the regular National Assembly session in September," Park said on Channel A.
"Why not have a broader and more rigorous discussion?" he said.
Rep. Lee So-young also called for deliberations to continue after the party convention.
"There is no reason to prevent prosecutors from checking whether something was omitted from a case transferred by police and attempting to correct it," Lee wrote Sunday on Facebook.
Rep. Kwak Sang-eon urged the Democratic Party not to adopt the complete abolition of supplementary investigative authority as its official position.
Rep. Mo Kyung-jong warned that eliminating the power even in exceptional cases where abuse would be unlikely could ultimately harm the public.
Women's rights organizations also joined calls to preserve some form of supplementary investigative authority.
Six organizations, including the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, Korea Women's Hot Line and the Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights' Women's Rights Committee, held a news conference at the National Assembly on Monday.
The groups appeared with Democratic Party Reps. Kim Nam-hee and Kim Dong-a and Progressive Party Rep. Son Sol.
"An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act must not make the system worse for victims," the organizations said.
Kim Nam-hee said reforms should not create additional victims, regardless of whether their overall direction is justified.
"We are considering reviewing the measures proposed by these organizations to protect victims' rights and reflecting them in the amendment," Kim said.
Rep. Park Jie-won said he continues to support complete abolition in principle but left open the possibility of exceptions for particularly serious crimes.
"Complete abolition is the answer," Park said on SBS radio. "But we should deliberate further on crimes against humanity and other appalling crimes such as the Jang Yun-gi case."
Concerns have also emerged within the presidential administration.
Lee Seok-yeon, chairman of the presidential National Integration Committee, said Sunday that completely eliminating prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority could be unconstitutional.
"Supplementary investigative authority should be recognized in some form," Lee said.
The Democratic Party is scheduled to hold a general meeting of its lawmakers Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposed amendment.
Rep. Ko Min-jung said younger lawmakers in particular have expressed concerns about the legislation.
"There will be a debate at tomorrow's general meeting," Ko said on MBC radio.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.
Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260713010004851