Supreme Prosecutors' Office Takes Down Signboard... Public Prosecution Service and Serious Crime Investigation Agency Launch Today

[Anchor]

Starting today (October 2), the Prosecutors' Office is abolished, splitting investigative powers into the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and prosecution powers into the Public Prosecution Service. With a complete overhaul of the criminal justice system taking place, the newly launched Serious Crime Investigation Agency has only established a basic physical presence, revealing a lack of preparation across the board and raising concerns over initial chaos.

Reporter Kim Deok-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

Just a day ahead of the abolition of the Prosecutors' Office, the four-character nameplate of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office was replaced with the three-character Public Prosecution Service.

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

Yesterday, work continued throughout the prosecution building in Seocho-dong, Seoul, to replace the prosecutors' titles and symbols posted in various locations.

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

The Public Prosecution Service, which has mostly inherited the existing prosecution buildings and organization, wrapped up staffing alignments tailored to the reorganized structure through its first reshuffle three days ago.

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

[Serious Crime Investigation Agency Facility Construction Official : They came just to work on this and the side. It seems to be work like setting up internal partitions….]

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

In particular, the Criminal Justice Information System, which is core to investigative work, only allows limited functions such as receiving, accepting, and assigning transferred cases, and it is projected to take another three years to complete its own standalone system.

A shortage of personnel is also an issue.

With only 66 percent of its total quota filled, the agency came up with a stopgap measure to push once again for additional special appointments regarding personnel from the Public Prosecution Service.

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

Regarding the massive overhaul of the criminal justice system maintained for nearly 80 years, public damage stemming from initial confusion appears inevitable.

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