Lawyer Park Jun-young: "Regarding Complete Prosecution Reform, Now Is Not the Time for the National Assembly but for the President and Government"

Urging President Moon Jae-in's Decision While Mentioning the Situation During the Adjustment of Prosecution and Police Investigation Authority

Attorney Park Jun-young (right), famous for specializing in retrials.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] Park Jun-young, a lawyer famous for his expertise in retrial cases such as the 'Yakchon Five-way Intersection Murder Case' (age 47, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 35), has called for President Moon Jae-in's decisive action regarding the ruling Democratic Party's push to forcibly pass the 'Complete Removal of Prosecutorial Investigation Rights (Geomsu Wanbak).' He stated, "Now is not the time for the National Assembly but the time for the President and the government."

On the afternoon of the same day, Park posted a message titled 'I believe it is not the time for the National Assembly' on his Facebook, making these claims.

He said, "From this perspective, how about looking at the problem of forcibly pushing 'Geomsu Wanbak'?" and referred to the process in which the prosecution and police fiercely clashed over the adjustment of investigative authority, eventually leading to a government agreement.

Park stated, "Minister of Justice Park Sang-ki and Minister of the Interior and Safety Kim Boo-kyum announced the 'Agreement on Adjustment of Investigation Authority between the Prosecution and Police' in June 2018," adding, "Afterwards, the Democratic Party reflected the government's agreement in the bill on adjustment of investigative authority and submitted it to the National Assembly. After many twists and turns, it passed the National Assembly in January 2020."

He recalled, "Before the government's agreement in June 2018, the police and prosecution each expressed their opinions," saying, "The police argued that the prosecutor's supervision of investigations was often used as a tool for abuse of prosecutorial power, emphasizing cooperation between the prosecution and police, and insisted that the police's authority to conclude investigations must be recognized. They also demanded the exclusion of the evidentiary power of suspect interrogation records prepared by prosecutors and the deletion of the prosecutor's exclusive right to request warrants."

He continued, "On the other hand, the prosecution emphasized the necessity of supervisory authority," explaining, "They said the term was authoritative and proposed changing it to 'judicial control by prosecutors.' They cited various reasons, including weakening investigative power and human rights violations. They also argued that the authority to conclude investigations is a role of judicial institutions and stressed the necessity of direct investigations."

Park said, "The government agreement was the result of synthesizing the claims of the prosecution and police at a higher level and developing them to illuminate the values and directions of the investigative system reform we aim for," and pointed out, "The process of reforming social systems must start with the individual entities operating the system clearly raising the current problems and contradictions (this is the so-called 'fact-finding' by listening to the institutions actually working), then these partial problems should be synthesized at a higher level (including in-depth review of opinions from related professions such as courts and academia), and finally, it should develop to a level that illuminates even the nature of the social values we are heading toward (including the process of public discussion that incorporates, explains, and persuades the diverse voices of citizens)."

He emphasized that the confusion and harm to powerless citizens caused after the implementation of the amended Criminal Procedure Act and amended Prosecutors' Office Act, which were created through such a process, were due to 'organizational selfishness,' factional logic, the media, politicians, and government incompetence.

He said, "However, the investigative authority adjustment bill, which passed the National Assembly after going through the above process, has not settled in reality and has caused considerable confusion," adding, "The victims are citizens caught up in criminal cases, especially those without money or connections."

He asked, "What went wrong? The problems and contradictions claimed by the police and prosecution were not honest," and explained, "You can see this by comparing the 'Opinion on Adjustment of Investigation Authority' submitted by the police (53 pages) and the prosecution (30 pages) in May 2018 with the current reality."

Park said, "The police and prosecution should have first honestly revealed and acknowledged the problems and contradictions, but 'organizational selfishness' was involved to some extent," and criticized, "Our citizens should have been able to recognize the problems as they are, but the media also failed in its role. The factional logic that treated state institutions as evil and the politicians who exploited this are serious problems."

He added, "We cannot ignore the government's lack of ability to synthesize these issues," saying, "In the synthesis process, contradictions and structural problems of each part should have been organically presented and organized, but this did not happen. That is why this confusion exists."

Park said, "It does not make sense that members of a group fight over who works more," and pointed out, "Approaching the power struggle between the police and prosecution as if it is 'everything' seems to have buried the true purpose of institutional improvement."

He continued, "Also, in the synthesis process, we failed to properly reflect the values we should aim for through judicial system reform," expressing regret, "While preventing abuse of prosecutorial power is important, we should have prepared a desirable judicial reform plan that minimizes the possibility of human rights violations, prevents criminals from exploiting loopholes to escape, discovers the substantive truth, and serves the convenience of those involved in criminal justice procedures as much as possible."

He also criticized, "Excessive emphasis on prosecutorial reform failed to capture the 'direction and values we should pursue' in a broad framework."

Park expressed dissatisfaction with the government and the Blue House, which remain silent amid the current conflict over 'Geomsu Wanbak,' and criticized the Democratic Party for forcibly pushing a bill disconnected from reality again two years after the forced passage of the investigative authority adjustment bill.

He questioned, "What is the current situation of the 'Geomsu Wanbak' forcible push? Has there been any work to reveal the problems and contradictions occurring after the implementation of the investigative authority adjustment bill?" and lamented, "There is no higher-level synthesis presenting the direction and values we should pursue. The government and the Blue House remain silent, saying it is 'the time of the National Assembly.'"

Park said, "Experts are all shocked when they see the bill. There are even provocative criticisms that it is an 'unimaginable bill' that would be criticized even if students made it as a joke," and asked, "Can this still be called the time of the National Assembly? Shouldn't the President and government point out that 'institutional reform should not proceed like this' and stop the forcible passage?"

He added, "The Democratic Party forcibly passed the investigative authority adjustment bill in January 2020. What 'change in circumstances' now justifies forcibly pushing 'Geomsu Wanbak'?" and targeted Democratic Party lawmakers who supported the bill, asking, "Is it the 'conviction of a lawmaker' to put your name on a 'messy bill' that is disconnected from reality and does not consider the system of related laws, all under the claim of 'party politics'?"

Park also mentioned his connection with President Moon Jae-in through retrial cases.

He said, "I respect and like President Moon Jae-in. While conducting retrials of cases the President defended, I saw his humanity," and added, "I am preparing another retrial case. It is a difficult case called the 'Pescamaho Case.' I decided to proceed with the retrial after seeing letters and materials sent by a Korean-Chinese who was sentenced to death at the time (later commuted to life imprisonment while serving sentence)."

He continued, "The President, while defending this terrible case, spoke about 'the reason to embrace even the perpetrator.' I sympathize with the reason the President said this. It contains the 'values we should aim for.'"

Finally, he urged President Moon Jae-in to make a decisive decision to stop the Democratic Party's forcible passage of 'Geomsu Wanbak.'

He emphasized, "I believe in the 'values our society should pursue' that the President is contemplating," and said, "The time to protect those values is now not 'the time of the National Assembly' but 'the time of the President and the government.'"

He concluded, "It is sad that we can only hope for the President's decision," and added, "I hope our citizens think about 'professional conscience and conviction, and the interests of the majority of the people.'"

Park, who participated as a civilian investigator in the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Truth Investigation Team 8, which investigated the former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui case in 2018-2019, attracted attention early last year when the Ministry of Justice explained the 'illegal deportation of Kim Hak-ui' allegations as 'an unavoidable task for the realization of justice.' He directly criticized then Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae, saying, "Minister Choo Mi-ae, you seem not to know well the situation at the time of the investigation request, the content of the investigation request, and the investigation process of the investigation team," and made a conscience declaration that "there was no basis for the travel ban on former Vice Minister Kim."

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