[Exclusive] "Let's Create a Prosecutor Investigator Council" Proposal Receives Over 400 Supportive Comments

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Investigator Hagiheon: "Organizations Without Decision-Making Bodies Are Only the Military and the Prosecutors"
Court Established Labor Union in 2005

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Seocho-dong, Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The proposal by a prosecutorial administrative officer to form a meeting body consisting of prosecutors' investigators and administrative officers is gaining support within the prosecution. Attention is focused on whether this will be the first consultative body of general staff members to be formed in the prosecution, which, unlike the courts, does not yet have a labor union.

According to the legal community on the 31st, Hagiheon, an administrative officer in the investigation department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, posted on the internal prosecution network Epross bulletin board on the 12th, suggesting, “Let's hold a vote for or against the formation of a meeting body for investigators that can represent the voices of investigators, administrative officers, and minority job series,” actively encouraging comments expressing support or opposition.

By the morning of that day, Hagiheon's post had received about 400 comments with real names (including replies), most of which expressed strong support for the formation of the meeting body.

In the post, Officer Ha stated, “It seems that the only organizations without a body to share the thoughts of members and decide their intentions are the military protecting our country and the prosecution.”

He continued, “The institutionalization of a prosecutors' investigators' meeting body is urgently needed for our rational decision-making and improvement of a horizontal organizational culture,” adding, “Although we ourselves use the word 'human rights' frequently, it is truly shameful that such institutional measures to respect and consider members within our organization have not been established to this day.”

He explained the background of his post, saying, “There have already been two recommendations from the Ministry of Justice and Prosecution Reform Committee to improve the prosecution's organizational culture. Nevertheless, the leadership shows no sign of implementing them. Therefore, I want to hear your valuable thoughts through an urgent public opinion survey and use that data.”

Officer Ha emphasized, “Our prosecution is still in a situation where it can face change due to external factors,” and added, “There is a saying that it is never over until it is over. Therefore, the institutionalized formation of an investigators' meeting body is the minimum countermeasure to actively respond to such organizational changes for our prosecution members.”

Several decades ago, there were attempts by general public officials such as investigators and administrative officers in the prosecution to establish a labor union, but these efforts failed. Since then, there have been several attempts to form an 'investigators' consultative body' in the form of a workplace council, but these were repeatedly thwarted due to negative reactions from the prosecution leadership and lack of support from general public officials. Investigators reported that prosecutors opposed the establishment of a union for general prosecutorial public officials, citing reasons such as “it is problematic for investigators handling public security cases to join a union.”

In contrast, the courts founded the Court Labor Union in 2005, and after a vote on integration with the Public Officials Union and joining the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in 2009, it was transformed into the National Public Officials Union Court Headquarters in 2010.

The total number of prosecutorial public officials nationwide is about 8,400, approximately four times the number of prosecutors, which is about 2,200. In the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, the largest prosecution office nationwide, there are about 200 prosecutors, while there are about 700 investigators and 150 administrative officers.

An active investigator, Mr. A, said, “I think (the investigators' meeting body) is obviously necessary, but our organization does not allow it,” adding, “I think it is because the prosecution is an organization of prosecutors and their organizational selfishness.”

Mr. A said, “During former Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook's tenure, all channels for general staff were opened,” and “Various opinions were freely expressed. But after the prosecutor general changed, the channels were blocked again, and it became impossible to freely express opinions.” He explained that there was an atmosphere where people could not freely post negative opinions such as dissatisfaction with the organization due to concerns about various disadvantages.

A former investigator, Mr. B, said, “To be honest, for general staff like us, the prosecution's organizational culture was that we had to follow all orders unilaterally given by prosecutors,” emphasizing, “I think a meeting body is definitely necessary to improve the organizational culture where people can say what they want.”

At the end of his post, Officer Ha hinted at the possibility of taking concrete actions to form the meeting body once a certain number of supportive comments are gathered, stating, “I will make sure that your active expression of opinions does not go to waste.”

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