PPP lawmaker urges Democratic Party to halt push to strip prosecutors of supplementary investigation powers

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun directed a sharp message at the Democratic Party of Korea on Friday: "Is an investigation a ping-pong game? The push to abolish supplementary investigation powers must stop immediately."

Writing on his Facebook page, Yoon said: "The Democratic Party's drive to abolish supplementary investigation powers — at this point, isn't this less a reform for the people than a 'criminal reassurance promotion act'?"

Yoon said former lawmaker Choi Kang-wook had argued that if supplementary investigations were unavailable, victims could "just talk to the media," and that Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Yong-min had now said victims could "just file a complaint directly with a prosecutor." "Does any of this make any sense?" he said.

"When citizens suffer the pain of crime, the state system should investigate and punish the criminal on its own — why should victims have to go looking for the media or file yet another complaint at the prosecutors' office? What did the victims do wrong?" he said, adding that what the ruling party calls reform is ultimately "ping-pong investigations, a game of hot potato."

Yoon said that if police conduct a sloppy investigation and hand the case to prosecutors, the prosecutor — unable to conduct a supplementary investigation directly — can only send it back to police with a request to do more. If police then drag their feet, the victim has to chase down the prosecutor and file a complaint all over again, he said, adding: "The prosecutor just makes requests, the police just stall, and the victim just files complaint after complaint in an endless loop — when does any actual investigating get done?"

"While the investigation drifts from place to place and time slips away, clever criminals are already destroying evidence and buying time to flee," he said. "What can investigators possibly uncover after all the evidence is gone? In the end, the victims — the people — are left to bear the full cost."

Yoon urged the party to immediately halt what he called a legislative rampage. "Justice must be swift and precise," he said. "Rather than wiping away victims' tears, this abolition of supplementary investigation powers only hands criminals a golden window to destroy evidence. It must stop now."