Kim Osu Urges "Maintain Fairness and Political Neutrality" Ahead of Presidential Election

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] Prosecutor General Kim Osu urged maintaining fairness and political neutrality in handling cases related to next year's presidential and local elections.

On the 13th, Prosecutor General Kim held a meeting on election crime response with 28 participants, including chief prosecutors in charge of elections from 18 local prosecutors' offices nationwide. He stated, "In past election investigations, we emphasized efficiency and speed, but we need to reflect on whether we neglected protecting the rights of those involved and ensuring transparency and due process in investigations, and it is necessary to reestablish investigation procedures."

He especially mentioned, "Since this is the first nationwide election conducted after changes in the criminal justice system, I hope for close cooperation with the police, who play a key role in investigations, to carry out swift and thorough investigations." Earlier, on the 9th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office organized dedicated election investigation teams at 59 district prosecutors' offices and branches nationwide and entered an emergency duty system until December 1 next year, when the statute of limitations for election law violation cases expires based on the local election date.

During the meeting, they also discussed investigation plans targeting the "three major crackdown areas": bribery, spreading false information for public opinion manipulation, and illegal involvement by public officials and organizations. According to the prosecution, among election cases related to this presidential election, as of the 3rd of this month (96 days before the presidential election), cases involving spreading false information and public opinion manipulation accounted for 70.6% of all cases. For the local elections, as of the 3rd of this month, bribery cases made up the largest proportion at 63.9% of all cases.

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