Supreme Prosecutors' Office Takes Down Sign... Office of Public Prosecution and Serious Crime Investigation Agency to Launch Tomorrow

[Anchor]

Starting tomorrow (the 2nd), the Prosecutors' Office will disappear into history, with investigation and prosecution being separated into the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and the Office of Public Prosecution. Although this is a massive reorganization of the criminal justice system, the newly opening Serious Crime Investigation Agency has not even finished organizing its personnel, let alone properly securing office spaces within its building. There are growing concerns about inconveniences in public judicial services.

Reporter Kim Deok-hyeon has the report.

[Reporter]

With just one day left before the abolition of the Prosecutors' Office, the four-character nameplate of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office has been replaced with the three characters of the Office of Public Prosecution.

The signboard of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is wrapped in a large cloth and disappears into the building.

Throughout today at the prosecutors' office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, work continued to replace prosecutors' titles and symbols posted everywhere.

The Ministry of Justice poured 6.5 billion won in reserve funds into replacing the symbols to shape the exterior of the Office of Public Prosecution.

The Office of Public Prosecution, which has mostly inherited the existing prosecutors' office building and organization, wrapped up personnel assignments tailored to the reorganized organizational structure through its first appointments the day before yesterday.

However, the newly born Serious Crime Investigation Agency, with just a day left until its launch, has failed to even finish preparing facilities inside its building today.

[Serious Crime Investigation Agency Facility Construction Official: They only came to do construction work here and next door. It looks like work such as internal partition walls....]

Investigations must begin right away starting tomorrow, but internal construction on the building must continue at least until the end of the year, and basic fixtures such as computers and internal phones have not been fully equipped.

In particular, the Criminal Justice Information System, the core of investigative work, can only use some functions such as receiving, accepting, and allocating case transfers, and it is projected to take three more years to complete its own system.

Insufficient personnel is also a problem.

With only 66% of the total quota filled, a desperate measure was announced to re-pursue additional special appointments for the personnel of the Office of Public Prosecution.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced today the list of seven Grade 1 investigators, including the deputy chief of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency headquarters, but it is reported that department assignments and work divisions for a significant number of working-level personnel, such as prosecutors' investigators transferring from the existing prosecution, have not yet been notified.

Regarding the major overhaul of the criminal justice system maintained for nearly 80 years, public damage due to initial confusion seems inevitable.

(Video reporting: Kim Nam-sung, Kang Si-woo | Video editing: Shin Se-eun | Design: Kim Min-young, Yang Gi-tae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.