Acting prosecutor general resigns over passage of criminal procedure law revision

Acting Prosecutor General Koo Ja-hyun submitted his resignation Friday, moments after the National Assembly passed a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act.

Speaking to reporters outside the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on his way home at around 6 p.m. Friday, Koo said he had just submitted his letter of resignation. "I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the passage of the Criminal Procedure Act revision," he said.

His resignation came 258 days after he took office on Nov. 15 last year.

Koo said the entire prosecutorial community must reflect on its failure to earn public trust, but warned that institutional reforms made for that reason must not undermine the core purpose of the prosecution — uncovering the truth and protecting victims and others involved in cases.

He added that he had continuously deliberated on how to reform the system to better protect citizens' rights and shield society from crime. He said he had repeatedly raised concerns that the revised bill would force prosecutors to decide whether to indict based solely on investigation records, make it harder to protect victims, and create an inefficient structure that consumes excessive time and resources.

"The bill passed without those concerns being addressed, and I cannot hide how heartbroken and helpless I feel," he said. He urged the government, even after receiving the bill, to carefully examine whether any gaps in the system remain and whether citizens will be adequately protected.

"I also feel a deep sense of responsibility for the fact that the Criminal Procedure Act has been revised in this way, while concerns raised by legal experts and citizens alike remain unresolved," Koo said. "I hope our criminal justice system will continue to develop in a direction where all citizens are protected fairly and equally under the law."

Koo graduated from the 29th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute and began his career as a prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office Southern Branch. He went on to serve at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and the Ministry of Justice — all considered key postings within the prosecution.

In 2020, when then-Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and then-Prosecutor General Yoon Suk Yeol clashed over stripping prosecutors of their investigative powers, Koo served as the Justice Ministry spokesperson and was widely seen as Choo's public voice.

After serving as the third deputy chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, he was promoted to prosecutor general rank and appointed head of the ministry's Prosecution Bureau, which oversees personnel and budget affairs for the prosecution.

When the Yoon Suk Yeol administration came to power, Koo was sidelined to a series of lesser posts — deputy chief of the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office, deputy chief of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office and research fellow at the Legal Research and Training Institute. He returned to a prominent role in July last year when the Lee Jae Myung administration appointed him chief of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office in its first prosecutorial reshuffle.

In November last year, he took over as acting prosecutor general following the resignation of former acting chief Noh Man-seok, who stepped down amid controversy over dropping the appeal in the Daejang-dong case.

Since taking office, Koo had largely kept a low profile during the prosecution reform process, rarely issuing public statements. He broke his silence after a prosecutor who had investigated the Daejang-dong case attempted to take his own life following the start of a parliamentary investigation targeting the prosecution, expressing what he called a "devastating" sense of distress and publicly voicing concern.

Speaking to reporters in a doorstep briefing at the time, Koo said prosecutors and investigators who handled the case had been summoned as witnesses based on "one-sided and fragmentary claims by parties to the case," and that court rulings made through due process were being attacked. "No parliamentary investigation should be seen as attempting to influence an ongoing trial," he said.

Koo also issued a statement Wednesday, ahead of the bill's scheduled floor vote, saying he felt a "heavy heart" as acting prosecutor general over the direction and substance of the Criminal Procedure Act revision, including the proposed abolition of prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers.

In that statement, he warned that if prosecutors lost their effective ability to review, supplement and correct the work of primary investigative agencies — as recent cases had demonstrated was necessary — "the truth will be concealed and South Korea's criminal justice system will collapse." He added that the resulting harm would fall hardest on those citizens most in need of the state's protection.

His resignation is seen as an act of accountability after the bill passed without incorporating the provisions the prosecution had sought, including the restoration of supplementary investigation powers.

Once Koo's resignation is accepted, Park Gyu-hyeong, head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's planning and coordination division, is expected to serve as acting prosecutor general in an "acting-for-the-acting" arrangement.

The government is expected to move quickly to appoint a successor in order to steady the organization and complete follow-up work on the Criminal Procedure Act revision.

The newly appointed acting prosecutor general is widely expected to go on to serve as the inaugural head of the Public Prosecution Service, set to launch in October.

Some observers say the government may skip the acting appointment altogether and directly nominate a chief for the new agency, given how close its launch is and the time needed to schedule confirmation hearings.