Minister Chu: "Prosecutor's Office Culture Will Change Once the Public Corruption Investigation Office Launches"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Choo Mi-ae, Minister of Justice, stated, "Once the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (Gong-su-cheo) is launched, the organizational culture within the prosecution will completely change."

On the 10th, Minister Choo said through Facebook, "The principle of prosecutor unity, a command system rooted in outdated justifications of control and obedience, will lose its power," adding, "The organizational culture where only a few within the organization enjoy protection and privileges at the cost of the leadership submitting to undemocratic power, while the majority of prosecutors work silently, will disappear."

She also expressed expectations that a desirable system of checks and balances between Gong-su-cheo and the prosecution would operate. Minister Choo said, "The organization’s hierarchy will compete and strive to reach fair conclusions that are not biased toward any side or faction," and added, "There will be no more cases of harassing female prosecutors with bad habits or devising clever calculations to dismiss charges despite receiving extravagant hospitality."

Externally, she claimed that power will no longer be able to use or manipulate the prosecution. This is because the investigation target of the independent agency Gong-su-cheo will be the power itself. Minister Choo stated, "The opposition party’s claim that Gong-su-cheo will become a tool of power has no basis," and explained, "If Gong-su-cheo and the prosecution mutually check each other as investigative agencies, proper judicial justice can be realized not only within the investigative agencies but also regarding power and high-ranking officials."

Finally, Minister Choo added, "I hope the inaugural head of Gong-su-cheo will be a leader who does not repeat bad investigative practices but introduces new advanced investigations to open a new era of human rights investigations."

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