As the Democratic Party of Korea pushes to abolish the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights through an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act before its national convention on August 17, lawmaker Hong Ki-won has publicly voiced opposition, stating, "There are concerns that completely stripping away supplementary investigation rights could lead to harm for the socially vulnerable."

In a post on Facebook, Hong stated, "The 'complete deprivation of investigative powers' is not an end in itself, but a reform aimed at protecting powerless victims and rooting out politically motivated prosecutors."

Regarding the remarks by Han Byung-do, the acting party leader and floor leader, that "the complete abolition of supplementary investigation rights is a firm principle of the Democratic Party," Hong wrote, "During the general meeting of lawmakers in March, when discussing the bills for the Public Prosecution Service and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, several lawmakers raised the need to exceptionally retain supplementary investigation rights to protect powerless victims and to provide checks on judicial police officers who would hold a monopoly on investigative powers." He added, "It should be a deliberation aimed at finding the optimal solution, not one where the conclusion has already been set."

He further emphasized, "We must go through a deep deliberation process to see if there is room to retain a level of supplementary investigation rights that minimizes harm to powerless victims while eliminating the possibility of abuse of power by prosecutors and ensuring that politically motivated prosecutors can never emerge again."

(Photo: Yonhap News)