'Don't hide': Han Dong-hoon challenges Democratic Party to public debate on prosecutors' supplementary investigation rights

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon on Tuesday called on Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers pushing to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigation rights to debate the issue publicly before the nation.

Writing on Facebook that day, Han challenged Democratic Party lawmakers — including Rep. Kim Han-gyu — who have backed the abolition, saying they should not "cowardly hide" by holding discussions among themselves in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, a panel he said the party has taken over. He demanded an open public debate on the matter.

Han said the Democratic Party describes the investigation and indictment of "President Lee Jae-myung and other Democratic Party politicians" as having "caused trouble," adding that the remark reveals exactly why the party is acting as it is.

He went further, saying the party's push amounts to "siding with killers and making innocent victims cry tears of blood for the private purpose of retaliating against those who refused to turn a blind eye to Democratic Party crimes."

Han made similar remarks on Monday after meeting with the victim of the Busan spinning-kick case at his National Assembly office. "If supplementary investigation rights are abolished, there will inevitably be far more cases like the Jang Yun-gi case and the Busan spinning-kick case than there are now," he said. "In the world the Democratic Party is building — one where police have a complete monopoly on investigations with supplementary investigation rights also gone — it will be the victims, not the state, who must fight crime directly."

Han also warned that abolishing supplementary investigation rights would produce a surge in cases closed at the police stage without charges, leaving police as "a completely unchecked power." He noted that prosecutors, by contrast, face judicial oversight: courts review their decisions to indict, and even when prosecutors decline to charge or drop a case, victims can seek a court ruling through a formal application process.