In South Korea, the Public Prosecutors Office will be abolished, and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Service will be established.

[Seoul Current Affairs] On the 2nd, in South Korea, the public prosecutor's office will be abolished and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, which will investigate economic crimes, and the Public Prosecution Service, which will be responsible for indicting and maintaining trials, will be established. Along with this, the supplementary investigation rights granted to prosecutors will be abolished in principle. Victim support groups have expressed concern that the system will lose its ability to supplement police investigations.

``Put the blame on the victim'': South Korean lawyer says after prosecutors abolish supplementary investigation

Song Ran-hee, executive director of Korean Women's Phone, a support group for victims of sexual violence and domestic violence (DV), points out, ``Investigations into women's violence have largely depended on the ability of the investigators in charge, whether they are police or prosecutors.''

In the past, even if the police investigation was insufficient, prosecutors could expect supplementary investigation, but that will no longer be possible. Mr. Song expressed his concerns, saying, ``The police's investigative capabilities have not yet caught up.''

While the system is being designed to abolish the public prosecutor's office, the murder of a high school girl in Gwangju in the southwest region in May has sown public distrust in police investigations. A prosecutor's investigation revealed that the defendant's father, who was an active police officer, had destroyed evidence, and prosecutors charged him with murder for the purpose of rape, which is more serious than ordinary murder. There have been growing voices in the legal community calling for a supplementary investigation.

Against this background, all cases of seven types of crimes against ``socially vulnerable people'' such as sexual violence, domestic violence, and child abuse will be required to be referred to the Public Prosecution Service, in order to prevent the police from arbitrarily closing the cases. Additionally, a system has been put in place that allows the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency to take charge of supplementary investigations in only seven cases.

However, Song said it was doubtful that cooperation toward prosecution and conviction would be possible in the current situation, where police and prosecutors have been at odds. He expressed concern, saying, ``I can't see concretely how the investigation process will turn out after the system change.''