Prosecution Office and Serious Crime Investigation Agency Launch Today; Prosecution Service Passes into History After 78 Years

[Anchor]

The Prosecution Service has faded into history after 78 years. Starting today, the indictment function is divided and assigned to the Prosecution Office, while the investigative function goes to the Serious Crime Investigation Agency. However, the Serious Crime Investigation Agency has opened its doors while lacking a chief, personnel, and a fully established system.

For our first news report, here is reporter Kim Deok-hyeon.

[Reporter]

On the eve of the abolition of the Prosecution Service, the four-character sign for the Supreme Prosecutors' Office was replaced with the three characters for the Prosecution Office.

The signboard of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office disappeared inside the building, covered with a large cloth.

Throughout yesterday at the prosecution building in Seocho-dong, Seoul, work continued to replace prosecution lettering and symbols attached in various places.

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

The Prosecution Office, which has mostly inherited the existing prosecution building and organization, completed personnel placement tailored to the reorganized structure through its initial appointments three days ago.

However, the newly born Serious Crime Investigation Agency failed to even finish facility preparations inside its building until the day before its launch.

[Serious Crime Investigation Agency Facility Construction Official: We just came to work on this and next door. It seems like internal partition work like that...]

It is supposed to start investigations starting right today, but internal construction on the building must continue until at least the end of the year, and basic fixtures such as computers and internal telephones have not been fully equipped.

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

A shortage of personnel is also a problem.

With only 66 percent of the total quota filled, the agency came up with a stopgap measure to push for additional special appointments for Prosecution Office personnel again.

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

Regarding the sweeping transformation of the criminal justice system that has been maintained for close to 80 years, public damage resulting from initial confusion appears inevitable.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Kim Nam-seong and Kang Si-woo | Video by Shin Seeun | Graphics by Kim Min-young and Yang Gi-tae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.