“The task now is to reform the police… We must prevent even the dream of blackmailing cases and investigation corruption.”
“My heart is heavy because there is no decrease in youth suicide… Reinforcement of all related measures.”
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Go Dong-wook and Hwang Yoon-gi = President Lee Jae-myung ordered strong reform on the 1st, a day before the abolition of the Prosecutor's Office and the launch of the Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Office (Serious Crimes Investigation Office), saying that the responsibility of the police has increased in line with the major transformation of the criminal justice system.
At a meeting of senior aides presided over at the Blue House on this day, President Lee said, "Tomorrow, the Office of Public Prosecution and the Office of Central Investigation will be officially launched. The wrong era in which the prosecution exercised omnipotent authority by monopolizing investigation and prosecution, and pretended to be a political prosecutor to eliminate and suppress political opponents, is coming to an end and a new criminal justice system based on the principle of checks and balances is beginning."
He continued, "The prosecution reform, which was sown by the participatory government and laid the framework by the Moon Jae-in government, is bearing fruit in the popular sovereignty government," and added, "Following the civilianization of the military and the depoliticization of intelligence agencies, it will be recorded as a new chapter in the history of reform of Korea's power institutions."
However, he emphasized, "With the redistribution of authority, police reform will become a major task for our government in the future. The responsibility of the police has become more important than ever. As authority has increased, external control and internal self-purification must be strictly implemented."
At the same time, he urged, “In particular, we need strong and practical reform measures so that we can not even dream of hiding cases or corruption in the investigation that the public is worried about.”
He added, "It is more important to ensure that the system is properly rooted in daily life and that a just social order is maintained," adding, "We must make every effort to ensure that the public does not suffer unfair harm or that small loopholes occur in investigative capacity, fairness, and victim protection during the establishment of the new system."
In addition, he pledged, "The people's sovereignty government will unwaveringly fulfill the mission of the times, which is irreversible prosecution reform, and will also speed up reform of the overall society centered on the three core social policies."
In addition, regarding the decline in the number of deaths from industrial accidents and suicide, President Lee said, "Our government's top priority of saving people's lives is to lead to concrete changes in the field," and added, "However, unfortunately, my heart is very heavy because the youth suicide rate has hardly decreased due to the effects of academic stress and other factors."
Accordingly, he said, “We need to strengthen all related measures so that the valuable results of reducing deaths from industrial accidents and overall suicide deaths lead to substantial reductions in youth suicide, deaths from various disasters, lonely deaths, and criminal deaths,” and added, “As many issues such as education, jobs, income, welfare, public safety, and culture are complexly intertwined with these issues, we must take a comprehensive approach beyond the divisions of ministries.”
In addition, regarding the fire accident at the National Information Resources Agency a year after the incident, he said, "This kind of backward manpower should never be repeated again," and emphasized, "We must speed up the establishment of a fundamentally redundant system for core information systems and carefully establish safety measures to prepare for all crisis situations."
