Prosecutors Submit Opinion to Ministry of Justice: "Specialized Departments Requiring Expertise Should Be Maintained"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution has submitted an opinion letter to the Ministry of Justice stating that specialized dedicated departments requiring expertise should be maintained as is, in response to the organizational reform plan that significantly reduces the direct investigation departments.

On the 16th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced, "We have widely collected and reviewed opinions from frontline offices and submitted an opinion letter to the Ministry of Justice today regarding the prosecution's organizational reform plan."

The opinion letter included points such as "agreement with the direction to strengthen the criminal and trial departments, and the necessity to maintain dedicated departments requiring expertise for prompt and efficient crime response," the Supreme Prosecutors' Office explained. It added, "Going forward, the prosecution will do its best in managing the organization and personnel to ensure no loss in crime response investigation capabilities."

Earlier, on the 13th, the Ministry of Justice announced a plan to abolish 13 direct investigation departments of the prosecution, converting 10 of them into criminal departments and 3 into trial departments.

According to the reform plan, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office will be reduced from 4 to 2, and the Public Investigation Division from 3 to 2. Among the Public Investigation Divisions in seven key district prosecutors' offices including two in Seoul Central District, Incheon, Suwon, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, and Gwangju, 5 out of 8 divisions will be abolished.

The Foreign Affairs Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office will be converted into a criminal department, leaving Foreign Affairs Divisions only in Incheon and Busan Prosecutors' Offices. The General Affairs Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office will also be changed to a trial department.

The Tax Crime Investigation Division and Science and Technology Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, along with the Food and Drug Investigation Division of the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office, will be replaced by criminal departments. The Seoul Northern and Eastern District Prosecutors' Offices will be designated as specialized prosecutors' offices focusing on tax and science and technology cases, respectively, handling related cases exclusively.

The non-organized Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office will also be converted into a trial department. Existing cases are expected to be reassigned to the Financial Investigation Divisions 1 and 2 of the same prosecutors' office.

Separately, it is reported that Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae is likely to carry out mid-level prosecutor personnel reshuffling as early as this week. It is widely expected that many mid-level managers in investigation teams handling allegations of Blue House-directed investigations, election interference, and cases related to former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk will be replaced.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.