With Expanded Role Due to 검수완박, Three Challenges for Guksubon to Address

Increase Expected in Next Year's September Budget
Urgent Need to Expand Financial and Cyber Personnel
Bar Association Survey: "Case Investigation Delays" 75%
Workload Increase Inevitable After Prosecution Reform

Kim Chang-ryong, Commissioner of the National Police Agency, is talking with officials at the Emergency Economic Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] The three challenges posed to the National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters following the enactment of the ‘Complete Prosecution Investigation Reform’ law are budget, organization, and trust.

While increasing the budget and personnel is key, achieving visible results within this year is difficult. The National Investigation Headquarters’ budget for this year is 337.6 billion KRW, an 11.7% increase from last year’s 302 billion KRW. Internally, this increase is considered insufficient given the initial stage of its launch in January last year. Expectations remain low even this year after the law’s enactment. A Ministry of Economy and Finance official stated on the 4th, “Prioritizing the maximum utilization of this year’s budget through reallocations is essential,” adding, “If insufficient, contingency funds can be used, but immediate funding needs are not expected to be large.” After maximizing the use of existing resources, it is expected that the budget will be increased when the next year’s main budget is prepared by September.

Expanding personnel and system improvements are also challenges. The political sphere, police, and related ministries have begun discussions on establishing separate organizations and transferring investigative duties. Recently, the demand for investigations into economic, financial, and cyber cases has increased, making personnel expansion in these areas urgent. To increase personnel, consultations with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety are necessary. Although the police requested an increase of 2,700 investigative personnel from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety at the end of last year, only 443 additional personnel were actually secured.

A frontline police officer stated, “If investigative personnel do not increase significantly, even with the Complete Prosecution Investigation Reform, practical issues will continue,” adding, “Since the police have been handling 99% of all investigations, there is no problem in terms of quality.”

Restoring public trust in police investigations is another challenge to be addressed. According to a survey conducted by the Korean Bar Association from April 6 to 17 among its members, 73.5% of respondents answered that they had directly experienced delays or postponements during the police investigation stage of a complaint case. Only 26.5% responded that they had not. The police cited reasons for investigation delays in complaint cases as excessive cases and workload (54%), circumstances on the complainant’s side (13%), and ongoing review, investigation, and supplementary processing (11%).

Attorney Oh Sunhee of the law firm Hyemyeong stated, “In one police station in Seoul, after investigating an assault case once, there has been no contact for eight months,” adding, “There was no mention of whether additional investigation was needed or if the case was closed.” She further said, “After the Complete Prosecution Investigation Reform, the volume of supplementary investigation requests from the prosecution to the police will increase significantly, making investigation delays inevitable.”

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