Follow-up Bills for Launch of Public Prosecution Office and Serious Crime Investigation Agency Clear Committee; Plenary Session Set for 17th

[Financial News] Follow-up bills to overhaul the criminal justice system following the abolition of the prosecution service and the launch of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and Public Prosecution Office cleared the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea on the 16th. The bills are expected to be submitted to the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea’s plenary session on the 17th.
The Legislation and Judiciary Committee held a full committee meeting that day and passed follow-up bills on the criminal justice system overhaul after they had gone through the relevant standing committees—including the Public Administration and Security Committee, Political Affairs Committee, Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, and Gender Equality and Family Committee—as well as the committee’s subcommittee on bills.
The bills included an amendment to the Serious Crime Investigation Agency Act specifying the agency’s authority to conduct supplementary and reinvestigations into crimes targeting socially vulnerable people. They also included amendments to the Public Prosecution Office Act, Prosecutors’ Disciplinary Act, Assembly and Demonstration Act, Public Official Election Act, Fair Trade Act, Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sexual Abuse, and Petroleum Business Act.
Amendments to the Civil Procedure Act, Court Organization Act, and Act on the Disclosure of Personal Information of Suspects of Specific Serious Crimes and Others were passed directly at the full committee meeting rather than being referred to the bill subcommittee, given the urgency of enacting them before the Public Prosecution Office and Serious Crime Investigation Agency are launched.
The amendment to the Prosecutors’ Disciplinary Act was put to a show-of-hands vote after the People Power Party raised objections. It passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee by 10 votes to 3, with 13 members present.
Park Hyung-soo, the People Power Party’s floor liaison on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, reaffirmed his party’s existing opposition to an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that would completely strip prosecutors of their investigative powers. However, because the opposition party’s demand to handle the follow-up legislation through amendments to individual laws rather than supplementary provisions was accepted, the party decided not to request separate votes on most of the follow-up bills.
He made clear that the People Power Party opposed the Prosecutors’ Disciplinary Act amendment. Park noted, "Reducing the disciplinary committee’s term from three years to one year has nothing to do with amending the supplementary provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act," adding, "We cannot support it because it moves in a direction that undermines the political neutrality and independence of the prosecution service."
A motion to withdraw a bill abolishing the investigative powers of prosecutors dispatched to the special counsel investigation of the National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea (NEC), introduced by Kim Yong-min of the Democratic Party of Korea, was passed without objection.
All Democratic Party of Korea members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee had introduced the bill on the 8th, but it was drafted differently from the ruling and opposition parties’ agreement that special counsel prosecutors could conduct investigations. The party therefore decided to withdraw it. The Democratic Party of Korea plans to revise the bill in line with the amended Criminal Procedure Act and introduce it again.
The follow-up legislation is moving quickly ahead of the launch of the Public Prosecution Office and Serious Crime Investigation Agency on October 2. The Legislation and Judiciary Committee plans to hold another full committee meeting at around 11 a.m. on the 17th to additionally process follow-up bills that have passed the Health and Welfare Committee and the Steering Committee.
The bills that cleared the Legislation and Judiciary Committee that day, along with those to be processed additionally on the 17th, are expected to be submitted together to the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea’s plenary session that afternoon.

[email protected] Kim Kyung-min Reporter