President Lee: Claim that the Serious Crime Investigation Agency chief cannot sit in on State Council meetings is “unconstitutional sophistry”

President Lee Jae Myung has hit back at the controversy over the chief of the Prosecution Office and the head of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA) sitting in on State Council meetings, releasing an AI response that called the argument against their attendance “unconstitutional sophistry.” His position is that there is no problem with their attending, since investigative and prosecutorial agencies are also administrative bodies subject to the president’s direction and supervision. The legal community, however, has voiced concern that the political neutrality and independence of investigative agencies could be substantially undermined, regardless of whether their attendance is lawful in itself.
On the 21st, President Lee shared an answer from Google’s AI, Gemini, along with a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account that read, “I asked Gemini.”
According to the post by President Lee, Gemini said, “The claim that the heads of the Prosecution Office and the Serious Crime Investigation Agency cannot sit in on State Council meetings—which denies Article 11 of the Government Organization Act—is unconstitutional sophistry.” It added, “The argument that the chiefs of the Prosecution Office and the Serious Crime Investigation Agency should be barred from attending State Council meetings is sophistry that directly denies the president’s administrative oversight authority and the structure for governing the government, as set out in the Constitution and the Government Organization Act.” Gemini explained, citing Article 66, Paragraph 4 of the Constitution and Article 11 of the Government Organization Act, that the president has the authority, as head of government, to direct and supervise the heads of central administrative agencies.
Earlier, Kim Ji-yong, head of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, attended a State Council meeting chaired by President Lee for the first time on the 20th. Some raised concerns that this could undermine the independence and neutrality of investigations. It had been customary for heads of investigative agencies not to attend, out of concern that their political neutrality could be compromised. But after President Lee instructed the heads of agencies under each ministry to attend in December last year, the Prosecutor General and the acting Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency have attended since January.
Legal scholars, by contrast, have argued that the attendance of investigative agency chiefs at State Council meetings could substantially infringe on the independence of investigative authority. Jang Yong-guk, a professor at Hongik University’s College of Law, said, “The position in our case law is that when form and substance differ, substance takes precedence. The Serious Crime Investigation Agency is also, in effect, a quasi-judicial body. It may be called an investigative agency, but it is an institution that makes judgments—not final judgments, but intermediate ones.” He continued, “The executive branch is fundamentally based on hierarchy and a chain of command. If those principles are applied as they stand to investigative agencies, investigations into higher-ups become impossible,” and stressed, “None of them should attend—not the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, the Korean National Police Agency, or the Prosecution Office.”


[email protected] Choi Jong-geun, Kim Dong-gyu Reporter