Criticism as a 'De Facto Prosecutors’ Office': How Far Will the Revised Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Bill Go? [Legal Insight]

With expectations growing that the government will re-announce for public comment next week the bill to establish the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, attention is focusing on how far the revisions will go. At a policy caucus on the 5th, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea decided to oppose the government’s initial draft, which would divide the agency’s judicial police officers into two tracks: "investigative judicial officers" and "specialized investigators." This suggests that part of the bill is likely to be revised.
According to the legal community on the 8th, the government, including the Prosecution Reform Task Force under the Office for Government Policy Coordination, is preparing a revised draft that reflects the ruling party’s views on the bill to establish the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, which was first released for public comment on the 12th of last month. The revised bill is expected to be re-announced for public comment as early as this week.
The biggest point of contention has been the personnel tracks for investigators at the agency, and it has now been decided that they will be unified. Under the government’s original design, investigative staff at the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency would be divided into "investigative judicial officers," who hold a lawyer’s license, and "specialized investigators," who do not. Both groups would qualify as judicial police officers under the Criminal Procedure Act of the Republic of Korea. However, critics argued that splitting the positions in this way would make the personnel structure virtually indistinguishable from that of the Prosecutors’ Office, undermining the very purpose of "prosecution reform." In response, the Democratic Party of Korea concluded that judicial police officers at the agency should not be divided into separate tracks.
The scope of cases the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency will handle has also been narrowed. Under the government’s draft, the agency would investigate nine categories of serious crimes: corruption, economic crimes, crimes by public officials, election crimes, defense procurement, major disasters, narcotics, treason and espionage, and national security and cybercrimes. The Democratic Party of Korea decided that the agency should instead handle only six categories, excluding crimes by public officials, election crimes, and major disaster cases. The party also plans to ask the government to limit cybercrimes to attacks on national infrastructure and high-tech related offenses.
The qualifications for the Commissioner of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency have likewise been relaxed. Under the government’s proposal, only someone who has served as an investigative judicial officer could become commissioner. The Democratic Party of Korea, however, wants to allow anyone with at least 15 years of experience in investigations or in the legal profession to be eligible for appointment.
Regarding this policy direction from the Democratic Party of Korea, the government has stated that it will review opinions from various sectors on its own and then work with the ruling party to enact the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Act. Some in the legal community predict that the government will accept a substantial portion of the ruling party’s demands when drafting the revised bill, since the cooperation of the ruling party is essential for the bill to pass. As the agency is scheduled to be launched on October 2, the legislation must be passed by next month at the latest to avoid disrupting the timetable.
The government is said to have originally conceived the "investigative judicial officer" track as a kind of incentive to attract public prosecutors from the Prosecutors’ Office to the new agency so they could transfer their accumulated investigative expertise. Under the Criminal Procedure Act of the Republic of Korea, public prosecutors would in effect be "demoted" to judicial police officers. The concern was that if their job classification were also made identical, it would be difficult to persuade prosecutors at the Prosecutors’ Office to move to the new agency.
Some observers also note that, because the agency will handle serious crimes involving political and corporate power—so-called "powerful figures"—the separate status of judicial police officers who come from the Prosecutors’ Office was intended to preserve their professional pride. This, they argue, would help secure investigators who are less vulnerable to external pressure.
The government has not ruled out revising both the personnel tracks for judicial police officers at the agency and the scope of crimes it will investigate. At a meeting of the Security and Public Administration Committee at the National Assembly on the 5th, Minister of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) Yoon Ho-jung said of the proposal to unify the agency’s investigative staff, "No final decision has been made yet," but added, "We gathered opinions from various institutions and across society, and many felt that having two separate tracks for investigators would be problematic." On the scope of crimes to be handled by the agency, he also remarked, "Discussions are under way to significantly narrow it," signaling a willingness to revise the bill.

kyu0705@fnnews.com Reporter Kim Dong-gyu Reporter