New investigative agencies face last-minute turmoil

New investigative agencies face last-minute turmoil

: Unsettled staffing and renewed vetting raise doubts about the readiness and independence of Korea's new investigative agencies.

With the Public Prosecution Office and Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (SCIA), which will replace the Prosecutors' Office, about to launch, their organizational structures and personnel appointments are still in flux. President Lee Jae Myung recently ordered revisions to the proposed organizational structure of the Public Prosecution Office and additional vetting of Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to head the SCIA.

The government and ruling party have loudly championed prosecution reform. Yet if they cannot finalize the organizations and leadership of the replacement agencies until just before their launch, what exactly have they been preparing?

The proposed Public Prosecution Office structure now being revised sets the number of prosecutors at 2,292, the same figure stipulated under the existing Prosecutors' Quota Act. This cannot be resolved simply by revising an organizational plan. Once the government decided to abolish the Prosecutors' Office, it should have determined in advance how the new prosecution agency's functions and staffing would be reorganized and what legislative changes would be necessary.

The same applies to the appointment of the SCIA chief. Kim was recommended by a candidate selection committee, formally proposed by Interior Minister Yoon Ho-jung and nominated by Lee. Yet after hard-liners in the ruling camp objected, partly because Kim is a former prosecutor, the government began vetting him again.

Any newly discovered grounds for disqualification should of course be examined. But Kim's career and past remarks could have been reviewed during the original vetting. Pressure from ruling party hard-liners is also inappropriate. Questioning a nominee's competence or qualifications is legitimate, but rejecting him merely because he once served as a prosecutor is difficult to justify.

It is particularly troubling to see ruling party lawmakers attempting to derail a presidential nomination made through established legal procedures. Such a precedent could leave the future SCIA chief vulnerable to political pressure. Can an investigative agency operating under such circumstances earn public trust?

Creating a sound system for investigations and prosecutions is more important than abolishing the Prosecutors' Office itself. If the new system fails, ordinary citizens will bear the consequences.