South Korea’s National Assembly passes prosecution reform bill

On April 30, the National Assembly Korea The ruling Democratic Party (DP) has passed one of two controversial prosecution reform bills, with opposition from the main opposition National Power Party (PPP).

Accordingly, the draft amendment to the Law on Procuracy was passed with 172 votes in favor and 3 against and 2 abstentions at a plenary session of the National Assembly. Although also participating in this session, members of the PPP party expressed their opposition and boycotted the vote. Currently, the DP holds 172 seats out of 300 in the National Assembly of Korea, while the PPP holds 110 seats.

The aforementioned draft only allows the Korean prosecutor’s office to investigate two types of crimes, corruption and economic crimes, instead of the previous six, before completely removing the agency’s investigative powers.

In recent weeks, the DP party has pledged to pass two bills on prosecutorial reform, thereby removing all investigative powers of the prosecutor’s office.

Previously, on April 15, the DP submitted to the National Assembly of Korea a draft amendment to the Law on Procuracy and the Law on Criminal Procedure with the participation of all 172 MPs of this party, including the content of removing investigative function of the prosecutor’s office. The DP believes that the separation of investigative and prosecution powers is fundamental in the judicial system of a democratic country. The purpose of the law amendment is to re-establish the prosecutor’s office as a procedural agency, improve fairness and objectivity in the punishment of criminals, as well as restore people’s confidence in the law. criminal and judicial systems.

Then, on April 22, the DP and PPP reached an agreement, ending the fierce argument about amending the bill. However, the PPP backed away from the deal after the bill was met with unexpectedly strong criticism from the public. It is widely believed that the lawmakers colluded to protect themselves from prosecution, as the agreement calls for the exclusion of election-related crimes and of state officials from investigations.

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