[Anchor]

The amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, which passed the National Assembly last week, was approved at the Cabinet meeting today (the 4th). With this, 72 years later, prosecutors' direct investigation powers as well as their supplementary investigation powers have disappeared. President Lee Jae-myung did not exercise his veto power, stating, "Although there is controversy, it is difficult to view the situation as serious enough to deny the legislative power of the National Assembly."

Our first report comes from Reporter Kang Cheongwan.

[Reporter]

Today's Cabinet meeting where the Criminal Procedure Act amendment, which abolishes prosecutors' direct and supplementary investigation powers, was submitted as an agenda item.

President Lee Jae-myung stated that while there are many controversies and differing opinions, it does not reach the level of denying the National Assembly's legislative power.

[President Lee Jae-myung: It is difficult to view this bill as a situation serious enough to deny the National Assembly's legislative power, such as being unconstitutional, unimplementable, against the national interest, or infringing upon the inherent authority of the executive branch.]

This drew a line against the calls for exercising the veto power made by the conservative opposition and some civil society groups after the amendment passed the National Assembly on the 31st of last month, led by the pan-ruling party bloc.

[President Lee Jae-myung: Exercising the veto power is not something that can be done simply because opinions differ, but rather according to the principle of the separation of powers...]

President Lee defined the fact that prosecutors have wielded concentrated powers such as investigation, indictment, and requesting warrants for decades as an abnormal system.

He added the following concern regarding the police, who will take over the investigation powers.

[President Lee Jae-myung: The (police's) power has grown immensely, but have they taken corresponding responsibility, and can they? Having worked as a lawyer for a long time, I couldn't trust the investigations of the police, let coals of doubt be cast, let alone the prosecutors.]

President Lee reprimanded as "strange" the fact that the police kept confidential the disciplinary action against the former chief of the Seongdong Police Station in Seoul—whose use of an emergency electric vehicle for commuting was revealed through an SBS report—under the pretext of "private life," and repeatedly emphasized that there must be no unfair victims, citing the "Jang Yoon-gi case" as an example.

[President Lee Jae-myung: Even a single case like the Jang Yoon-gi case symbolizes so much, but how unfair would it feel? To a public official, it is just one of dozens or hundreds of cases they handle, but for the parties involved, it is a matter of life and death.]

President Lee stated that there is no reform that concludes with a single institutional change, and that any shortcomings and wrong parts will be supplemented.

[Video Coverage: Jung Sang-bo, Ha Ryung | Video Editing: Oh Young-taek]