Bill stripping prosecutors of supplementary investigation powers clears Assembly subcommittee

The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee passed, under Democratic Party of Korea leadership, an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure that would abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers.

Kim Seung-won, the Democratic Party lawmaker who chairs the subcommittee, told reporters after Tuesday's session that the panel had passed "a revision to the Code of Criminal Procedure for the first time in 70 years." He described the amendment as establishing "a new criminal justice framework aimed at providing stronger protection for victims, ensuring more accountable investigations, and exercising indictment decisions more fairly."

The core of the amendment is a ban on prosecutors conducting direct investigations, including supplementary ones. Under the bill, prosecutors may request that judicial police officers carry out supplementary investigations. Police would be required to complete such investigations within one month of receiving a prosecutor's request, with the option to extend by an additional month.

For cases in which police decline to refer a suspect to prosecutors, the bill would allow prosecutors to demand a reinvestigation and, if new criminal charges are uncovered, to request that the competent investigative agency open a probe. Not only victims and complainants but also informants would be able to file objections against a police decision not to refer a case. The bill also grants those filing objections the right to review and copy case records.

The amendment also requires that all materials generated during an investigation be digitized and logged in the Criminal Justice Information System. It mandates video recording of the entire search and seizure verification process and establishes a legal basis for audio recording during suspect questioning and other investigative procedures.

Prosecutors would be required to maintain objectivity and neutrality in bringing and sustaining criminal charges, and to take necessary measures in the legitimate interest of suspects or defendants.

The People Power Party boycotted the vote, accusing the Democratic Party of pushing the bill through unilaterally. Park Hyeong-su, the PPP's floor manager on the subcommittee, told reporters that the Democratic Party "had everything arranged according to their script, kept us as window dressing all day, and even drew up a clause-by-clause vote sheet entirely on their own terms," adding, "They should give us time to review the bill, but they are proceeding without that, so there is no longer any point in our participating in the subcommittee."

PPP lawmaker Kim Tae-gyu also criticized the process, saying there had been "no detailed explanation of how the review had proceeded" and that his party had been "a folding screen from start to finish." He said rushing the proceedings to coincide with the Democratic Party's national convention was something "no lawyer with common sense could accept."

The Democratic Party plans to bring the Criminal Procedure Act amendment before the full Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and pass it on the floor on Thursday. The PPP, anticipating that the Democratic Party will force through both the Criminal Procedure Act amendment and a revision to the National Assembly Act shortening the fast-track period, has placed the party on emergency standby at the National Assembly for three days through midnight Friday.