Seo Young-kyo: "No Difference of Opinion with Justice Minister Jung Seong-ho on Criminal Procedure Act Amendments... Will Promptly Fix Any Issues"

[Joo Young-jin's News Briefing]

When quoting this interview, please explicitly cite the program name 'SBS Joo Young-jin's News Briefing.' Copyright belongs to SBS.

■ Broadcast: SBS <Joo Young-jin's News Briefing> Mon–Fri (14:00–15:20)
■ Host: Anchor Joo Young-jin
■ Guest: Seo Young-kyo, Chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee
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● Interview with Seo Young-kyo, Chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee
"Criminal Procedure Act Revision Means Prosecutors Must End Elimination of Political Rivals and Distorted, Targeted Investigations Themselves"
"Advantages of Supplementary Investigation Authority Transferred to Right to Demand Supplementary Investigation... Fully Compensated"
"Senior Superintendents General Conducting Direct Investigations? Not True... Investigations Handled by National Investigation Headquarters"
"About 200 Subordinate Laws Affected... Six Months Needed for Statutory Amendments"
"9 Subcommittee Meetings, 6 Plenary Sessions... Swift, Yet Thoroughly Deliberated"
"In Close Communication with Justice Minister Jung Seong-ho... No Difference of Opinion"
"Full Case Transfer for Crimes Against the Vulnerable to Pass in September Regular Session"
"Working at Major Crime Investigation Agency Will Not Lower Treatment... Well-Performing Prosecutors and Police Will Be Promoted"
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[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Over the past few months and weeks, I think you might have been the busiest person in political circles. We have Seo Young-kyo, Chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, with us. Welcome.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Hello.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Thank you for your hard work. The revision of the Criminal Procedure Act has finally been achieved.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is correct.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Although there are voices of concern, there must be a reason why the Criminal Procedure Act was revised, right?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is right. 78 years after the establishment of the Republic of Korea in 1948, the reform of the Criminal Procedure Act has been achieved. And 72 years since the Criminal Procedure Act was enacted, it has been revised. At that time, because the police had so many issues, investigative authority was handed over to prosecutors to protect human rights. As a result, prosecutors ended up holding indictment rights, investigative authority, and warrant application rights all by themselves, becoming a monopoly, behaving arrogantly, and using all that authority to conduct targeted investigations, distorted investigations, and eliminate political rivals. So the revision bill of the Criminal Procedure Act began with the idea of dispersing power—investigative authority to the police, and indictment authority to prosecutors. Now that it is finalized, investigative authority has been removed from prosecutors, and that removed authority has led to the creation of the Major Crime Investigation Agency, a Korean-style FBI. And the authority to demand investigations that prosecutors held has been transferred to the police as the right to demand supplementary investigations. That is how we set it up.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: What is the basis for your assertion that this will practically benefit the public? What led you to conclude that separating investigation and indictment will benefit citizens?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: It means prosecutors themselves must now cut off acts such as eliminating political rivals, conducting distorted or targeted investigations, or manipulating evidence and indicting based on fabricated evidence. So prosecutors break away from that, and what prosecutors can do well is to take what the police have investigated, indict, and send it to trial. In the process of handing it over to trial, if something is lacking, they will demand supplementary investigation from the police. What, then, is good for the general public in this process? The police will focus on investigation, incorporating state-of-the-art investigative techniques and forensic methods. And for major crimes such as economic crimes, corruption, drugs, and cybercrimes, a specialized investigative agency is established. That is the Major Crime Investigation Agency. That is the Korean-style FBI. Citizens can view it as: a Korean-style FBI is being established in South Korea through this opportunity, prosecutors cast off the bad practices they engaged in, and the Korean-style FBI handles the investigations prosecutors used to do.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Let me ask one more question. Despite voices arguing that some supplementary investigative authority should remain to provide mutual checks and balances—such as in the recent Jang Yun-gi case where prosecutors uncovered what the police attempted to cover up—what was the rationale behind ultimately abolishing even supplementary investigative authority?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: The broad framework separates indictment, warrant applications, and maintaining public prosecution for prosecutors, while investigations are assigned to the police and the Major Crime Investigation Agency. While leaving a small portion of supplementary investigative authority might seem useful, we divided the overarching structure so that the merits of supplementary investigation—the issues that could arise as in the Jang Yun-gi case—are addressed through the right to demand supplementary investigation. Previously, prosecutors would conduct investigations using their own investigators. Now, instead of doing that, they instruct a separate agency, the police, to investigate. That is called the right to demand supplementary investigation. Once someone investigates, they tend to want to indict and push their own case. So we cut that off: look at whether the investigation was done well, and if so, send it to trial, using the demand for supplementary investigation if needed. So, having drawn the line, rather than leaving a bit of investigative power behind, concerns like the cover-up of cable ties in the Jang Yun-gi case—where police might be involved in the crime or investigation—can be addressed by replacing or disciplining the police officers involved, or transferring the investigation to the newly established agency, the Major Crime Investigation Agency.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: What you brought today is titled "The Much-Improved Criminal Procedure Act."

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is correct.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Please explain it.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: It is a much-improved Criminal Procedure Act. Some worry: "What if prosecutors do not investigate under this revised law?" Please do not worry. Instead of prosecutors investigating, a far more specialized agency, the Major Crime Investigation Agency, has been established. "What if prosecutors do not conduct supplementary investigations?" Do not worry. They can demand supplementary investigation from the police. And as you mentioned, "What if the police cover something up?" They could potentially cover up things at crime scenes. So we made it so that officers wear body cameras to record the entire scene on video, and all of this is stored in the advanced criminal justice information system called 'KICS,' including video recordings categorized by time. Also, some point out a remaining problem: cases being repeatedly passed back and forth between prosecutors and police. So we included provisions to prevent "ping-ponging" and investigative delays. Prosecutors hold onto the case number, demand supplementary investigation from the police, receive it back, and quickly hand it over—eliminating case bouncing. Most importantly, we incorporated victims' rights. If a victim is suffering and goes to the police, but the police do not investigate their evidence for six months, the victim can file an objection. That allows the assigned police officer to be replaced. Or if the victim feels "this police officer seems biased," steps can be taken to transfer the case to the Major Crime Investigation Agency. Like the female victim of the 'roundhouse kick' assault case who might not know what is happening in trial or investigation, we enabled victims to inspect and copy case records if necessary, so they can verify whether the investigation was conducted properly or what further arguments need to be presented. It is a much-improved Criminal Procedure Act.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Understood. Now let's turn to the voices of concern. Since you have explained many positive aspects, there are concerns raised by the opposition party as well, right?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is right.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: They argue that police power will become overly expanded and too strong. Also, reporter Huh Min mentioned earlier today an exclusive report by the Munhwa Ilbo stating that direct investigative authority is granted to officers at the rank of Senior Superintendent General or higher. They argue that this ultimately creates room for political power to intervene in investigations, asking why this was inserted quietly without briefing the press.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That was not inserted quietly. Currently, there is a point raised that officers of Superintendent General rank or below conduct investigations, which might lower investigative capacity. So the reform measure is to have officers at the Inspector rank or higher handle investigations, which would significantly improve quality. Now, what was the rank you mentioned earlier?

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Senior Superintendent General.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Senior Superintendents General do not conduct direct investigations themselves. Only the National Investigation Headquarters (NIH) conducts investigations. A Senior Superintendent General at the NIH participates in supervision. The head of the NIH is a Chief Superintendent General. So this is designed to enable top-down oversight to check whether investigations are conducted properly, and this matter will be discussed further.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Currently, there is the National Investigation Headquarters within the police, and there is the Major Crime Investigation Agency. The NIH can handle all investigations, correct?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is correct.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Does the Major Crime Investigation Agency handle six major crime categories?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Seven major crime categories.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Seven major categories, including drugs.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: You can think of it as corruption, economy, defense industry, drugs, plus cybercrime. The remaining two are insurrection and treason, as well as crimes involving police and prosecutors. The Major Crime Investigation Agency is set up to investigate these areas.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Doesn't that overlap with the High-ranking Officials Criminal Investigation Agency (CIO)?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: The CIO handles cases where high-ranking public officials abuse their authority in the course of duty. But for crimes outside of official duty—such as a prosecutor or judge committing misconduct at a karaoke venue—the Major Crime Investigation Agency can investigate. The police can also investigate, but priority lies with the Major Crime Investigation Agency. So there is no need to worry because an agency called the Major Crime Investigation Agency has been established. Briefing sessions regarding the Major Crime Investigation Agency begin today, and regional organizations will be established nationwide.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Some say it will take a considerable amount of time to revise all related laws, as even simple name changes across all statutes will need to be made.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is correct. Some said this Criminal Procedure Act was drafted at light speed...

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Minister of Justice Jung Seong-ho said that.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: To clarify here, I became Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on July 1. As you mentioned, about 200 subordinate laws are linked to this legislation.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: 200 laws.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Because we have to remove references to prosecutorial investigative authority and make overall adjustments. Creating these laws, presidential decrees, and ministerial ordinances takes at least six months. But I started on July 1. So what had to be done? We had no choice but to move quickly. And moving quickly did not mean doing a sloppy job. We held nine subcommittee meetings alone. Within a month, holding nine subcommittee meetings meant twice a week. In between, we held six plenary sessions. We met with police officers, prosecutors, lawyers, victim support groups, civic organizations, and others—looking back, we spent an immense amount of time meeting stakeholders. So although it was done in a short period, it was created through sufficient deliberation. Regarding the subordinate legislation, when revising the Criminal Procedure Act, 15 related laws were attached to the addenda to be settled together, and about 157 bills will be compiled into an omnibus bill to be introduced and resolved all at once.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Will all of this be completed within this year's regular National Assembly session, before the launch of the Prosecution Service and the Major Crime Investigation Agency on October 2?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Yes. We will finalize everything before then. Key items must be completed even earlier, because passing a law alone is not enough. Presidential decrees, Ministry of the Interior and Safety ordinances, Prosecution Service regulations, and Ministry of Justice ordinances must all be established together.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: During this process, did Minister of Justice Jung Seong-ho and Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chair Seo Young-kyo engage in close discussions, or was there no communication?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: We communicated closely.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: You communicated closely, but was the difference of opinion large, moderate, or small?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: There was no difference of opinion. Minister Jung Seong-ho never argued for maintaining supplementary investigative authority. However, he did mention full case transfer. Full case transfer for the vulnerable, ensuring no victims are left behind. So we reflected that concept thoroughly in this bill.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Is it included? Such as crimes against women?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Although it was not framed strictly as mandatory full case transfer, it covers sexual violence, stalking crimes, crimes against persons with disabilities, and elder abuse crimes.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Crimes against the socially vulnerable.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Domestic violence and child abuse are already subject to full case transfer. For other crimes against the socially vulnerable, we decided to incorporate full case transfer provisions into respective individual statutes and pass them during the upcoming September regular session. For cases where police recommend prosecution, they are transferred to prosecutors as before. In cases where police decide not to transfer, if a victim says "I want this transferred," filing an objection will cause the case to be transferred. For cases that are not transferred, all records are still sent. So prosecutors can review them and, if they see something missed or important, demand a reinvestigation. Since prosecutors might not carefully review non-transferred cases, we inserted provisions requiring prosecutors to review them and verify that they have done so.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: The Prosecution Service is disappearing now, right?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: The Prosecution Service is abolished, and the Public Prosecution Office is established.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Exactly. So will prosecutors move to the Public Prosecution Office or the Major Crime Investigation Agency? Until now, we thought of prosecutors as investigators. But now prosecutors cannot investigate. Will current prosecutors go to the Public Prosecution Office to work as trial prosecutors, or will they go to the Major Crime Investigation Agency to become investigators?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is right.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Reports suggest the general mood among prosecutors is that they do not want to go to the Major Crime Investigation Agency. Is that accurate?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: In fact, prosecutors are rarely an organization dedicated solely to investigation. Even in the past, police handled most investigations. Prosecutors used to handle investigations in specific areas like corruption, economy, public officials, elections, defense industry, and major disasters. But when the scope was narrowed to corruption and economy with the word 'etc.' added, Han Dong-hoon used executive orders to make prosecutors investigate all of them again.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Via presidential decree.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: So decree ended up wagging the law—the tail wagging the dog. But instead of conducting investigations, indictment is the most crucial role. The police investigate and send cases up, and prosecutors decide whether to indict or not. Indictment leads to trial, and maintaining prosecution in trial is primarily what prosecutors do. That alone is a massive workload. In evaluating whether to indict, if police investigation is slightly lacking, they request supplementary investigation. If police investigation was improper, they request replacing the investigator. This indictment role is paramount. However, if prosecutors prefer investigating, they can join the Major Crime Investigation Agency alongside investigators to focus on investigations. So many are pondering whether to move, as changing roles is not easy. But if they transfer, their compensation and treatment will not be downgraded.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Will their rank and status be maintained at a similar level?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Treatment remains identical. It will be kept the same, and since it is starting out, we are reviewing whether to provide additional incentives. Yesterday, I received a full briefing together with the Public Administration and Security Committee. Shouldn't treatment be favorable to attract people? Indeed. So we decided to make conditions better, and I encourage prosecutors to join the investigative branch. However, investigation and indictment are now separated. Someone who investigated naturally wants to indict, so even if there are flaws in what they did, they don't let go. We are preventing such occurrences. This allows prosecutors to perform their duties with greater satisfaction. We will ensure high-performing prosecutors and high-performing police officers are praised and promoted.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Will investigations into so-called live power, corruption, and irregularities be handled by the Major Crime Investigation Agency?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is right. The Major Crime Investigation Agency will handle them, as will judicial police and the CIO. But if an investigation is flawed, prosecutors must decisively decline to indict. That is why investigation and indictment were separated. And if an investigation was improperly withheld, prosecution can still be initiated. That is how the system is structured.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: In any case, concerns were clearly voiced even within the Democratic Party.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Once we addressed all those concerns, the voices of concern turned into votes of approval, leading to unanimous adoption as the party platform.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: In the next general election or presidential election, the public will surely judge this Criminal Procedure Act revision. As Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, are you confident?

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: One must never be arrogant. But while crafting this much-improved Criminal Procedure Act, I realized elements that had been missing and incorporated them. If a victim expresses suffering and asks for further investigation of their case, but is ignored by police, they can boldly request a change of investigator. If a case is transferred to prosecution and prosecutors request action but police fail to comply—it is not a strict vertical hierarchy—prosecutors can boldly demand disciplinary action. All these provisions have been included. Therefore, protection for victims becomes stronger, criminals will be pursued and punished to the end, no innocent person will suffer unjustly, and prosecutors will not wield this power as lackeys of political power. That is what we have established.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: Understood. We will keep what Chairwoman Seo said today in mind, and if developments take a different turn from what was discussed, we will invite you back to hear your thoughts again.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: If that happens, we must make further supplements. We must always listen to public voices; how could anyone say, "Why supplement it?" Making necessary supplements is unavoidable.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: That is true.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: However, right now, we have put forth our best efforts. I am also the person who passed 'Taewan's Law' to abolish the statute of limitations for murder. Back then, due to the tragic story of a young child, a murderer could be freed after 15 years. I ensured murderers could be pursued to the end. I also passed the 'Goo Hara Law' to strip inheritance rights from parents who fail to raise their children. Like this, lawmakers are people who give voice to the vulnerable. As Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, I will continue to listen to the weak and ensure stronger protection for victims.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: And the Criminal Procedure Act revision was also aimed at protecting such socially vulnerable people...

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: That is correct.

[Anchor Joo Young-jin]: You have explained that the revision was directed toward that purpose. Thank you for your time today.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee]: Thank you.

※ For details, please check the video.

※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.