Prosecution Service Disbands After 78 Years as Prosecution Office and Major Crime Investigation Agency Launch Today

[Anchor]

The Prosecutors' Office has faded into history after 78 years. Starting today (October 2), the indictment function will be handled by the Prosecution Office, while the investigation function will be split and taken over by the Major Crime Investigation Agency. However, the Major Crime Investigation Agency has opened its doors with its chief, personnel, and systems not yet fully prepared.

For our first news today, reporter Kim Deok-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

Ahead of the abolition of the Prosecutors' Office, the four characters of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office were replaced with the three characters of the Prosecution Office.

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

Throughout yesterday at the prosecutors' office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, work continued to replace the prosecution-related lettering 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 Prosecution Office.

The Prosecution Office, which has mostly succeeded the existing prosecutors' office buildings and organization, completed the personnel placement tailored to the reorganized job structure through its first reshuffle three days ago.

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

[Major Crime Investigation Agency Facility Construction Official : We only came to work on this and next door. It seems to be work like internal partitions....]

Although investigations must begin right starting today, internal construction of the building must continue until at least 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, which is core to investigative work, can only use some functions such as receiving, accepting, and assigning case transfers, and it is expected to take another 3 years to complete its own system.

A shortage of personnel is also a problem.

With only 66% of the total quota filled, authorities have come up with a stopgap measure to push for additional special appointments for the Prosecution Office personnel once again.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced the list of seven Grade 1 investigators, including the deputy chief of the Major Crime Investigation Agency headquarters, yesterday, but it is reported that they have not yet been able to notify the department placements and task assignments for a significant portion of the working-level staff, such as investigative officers moving from the existing prosecution.

Regarding the massive overhaul of the criminal justice system that has been maintained for nearly 80 years, public damage resulting from initial confusion seems inevitable.

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