[Anchor]

The Democratic Party has held a policy general meeting to hear expert opinions on the potential abolition of the prosecutors' authority to conduct supplementary investigations. Opinions were sharply divided, leading to intense arguments.

Reporter Ha Jeongyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

The Democratic Party's policy general meeting was held as a process to gather internal consensus on the issue of abolishing the prosecutors' supplementary investigation authority.

The meeting proceeded in a format of listening to and discussing opinions from experts in the legal, academic, and civic sectors. The party leadership began by promising to fully listen to diverse voices.

[Han Byung-do / Democratic Party Floor Leader: This is a forum for discussion to reaffirm the direction of the reforms we have been pursuing, while at the same time completely dispelling even 1% of anxiety.]

Experts engaged in a heated debate lasting over two hours regarding whether to maintain or abolish the supplementary investigation authority.

[Park Chan-woon / Professor at Hanyang University Law School (In favor of maintaining supplementary investigation authority): Abolishing supplementary investigations would be a reform that puts the handling of 99% of general criminal cases at risk.]

[Hwang Mun-gyu / Professor of Police Administration at Joongbu University (In favor of abolishing supplementary investigation authority): There is a high possibility that separate or targeted investigations could be revived by exploiting the anxious state of mind of victims.]

Even regarding the "Jang Yoon-gi case," views were sharply divided, with some arguing, "It is a problem that can be solved through police reform," while others countered, "No, it demonstrates the necessity of the prosecutors' supplementary investigation authority."

[Kang Dong-pil / Lawyer (In favor of abolishing supplementary investigation authority): In the Jang Yoon-gi case, the fact that the emergency arrest was made in just 11 hours is something only the South Korean police could do. They did a good job.]

[Kim Gyu-hyun / Lawyer (In favor of maintaining supplementary investigation authority): In reality, cases of public harm like the Jang Yoon-gi case are being mass-produced. Why on earth are we doing this kind of reform? You said that investigations speak through records, but are there cable ties in the records?]

A verbal clash even broke out between an expert and a Democratic Party lawmaker.

[Kim Nam-hee / Democratic Party Lawmaker (In favor of limited maintenance of supplementary investigation authority): Each and every case is a matter involving someone's life, such as the bereaved family of Lee Chae-won, the victim in the Jang Yoon-gi case.]

[Kang Dong-pil / Lawyer (In favor of abolishing supplementary investigation authority): If you leave the supplementary investigation authority in place, are prosecutors going to come out to the scene for every single case to look for cable ties? They can't. They can't do it.]

Although the general meeting was held as a process for publicizing legislation through the collection of expert opinions, only about 15 out of the 161 Democratic Party lawmakers remained until the end.

(Video Editing: Yoo Mi-ra)