KICS system for new agency won't be fully operational until 2029
Agency must borrow police network for now, rely on paper records
Ministry says investigators will handle cases manually at launch
Staff still unaware of their assignments days before opening
The criminal justice information system known as KICS, which the new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency will rely on, is not expected to be fully operational until 2029 at the earliest. KICS is the essential digital platform used by investigative agencies — including police and prosecutors — to register cases and track investigation progress. Although the agency is set to open Thursday, digitization of its investigative operations remains under development. For now, the agency will have to borrow the police KICS system and resort to paper records to conduct investigations.
According to documents the Ministry of Interior and Safety submitted Tuesday to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Ye-ji of the National Assembly's Interior and Safety Committee, an independent KICS system tailored to the agency's organizational structure is scheduled to be built over three years, with completion targeted for 2029. The ministry said it would "prepare measures — including, where necessary, conducting investigations using paper records and handwritten ledgers — to ensure that operations are not disrupted."
The documents outline three key constraints. First, the agency will be unable to process cases digitally for some time after opening. Under the ministry's phased rollout plan, only limited functions will be available Thursday — case registration, assignment and receipt, along with user-permission management for the work portal. Additional functions, including case processing, a public-facing criminal justice portal and statistical tools, are to be added in early December after a pilot run.
Second, the agency will have no way to electronically transfer cases to police at launch. The agency holds priority jurisdiction over serious crimes and its investigative scope overlaps with that of police, so frequent case transfers are expected — raising concerns about operational confusion. A Korean National Police Agency official said the agency currently has no function allowing it to electronically transfer cases to police, and expressed hope that the agency's KICS would be up and running as soon as possible to prevent case-processing delays.
Third, construction of the agency's own KICS system will not begin in earnest until 2028, the agency's third year of operation. According to the agency's information strategy plan for building KICS, the total budget required has yet to be calculated. The agency plans to spend next year drawing up an information strategy plan — the blueprint for digitizing its operations — and has requested 938 million won ($690,000) in next year's information technology budget from the government.
The Ministry of Interior and Safety said it plans to build the agency's own KICS system over two years, from 2028 to 2029, following completion of the information strategy plan. It added that construction costs are difficult to estimate at this stage, as they must reflect functional requirements identified during the planning process.
The situation was, to some extent, foreseeable. Development of the agency's digital systems got off to a late start: the ministry signed a contract with LG CNS on June 1 to develop KICS and other systems for the agency, with actual development beginning June 15 — just over three months before the opening.
Pro-government politicians who pushed to strip prosecutors of investigative powers have long touted KICS as a safeguard against the alleged burying of cases. Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Park Eun-jeong of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee appeared on a YouTube channel in March and said KICS is "a system for transparency in criminal case handling," adding that "case burial is impossible because every case goes into KICS."
Investigators: 'We start this week but still don't know our assignments'
One investigator set to transfer to the agency said they had yet to be notified of their department assignment despite being due to report for work this week. "Only a small advance team has received postings — most of us still don't know where we belong," the investigator said, adding that the uncertainty was causing significant stress. "Everything is in the dark. I have no idea what happens from Friday."
Another investigator said the agency was barely equipped with desks and computers as the opening approached. "I think we'll spend all of this year just getting set up and won't actually be able to do any work until next year," the investigator said. A third investigator said politicians had pushed the process through too hastily. "Opening before we're ready is a real problem," the investigator said.
The agency is also struggling to fill its ranks. Of its total authorized headcount of 2,874, roughly 900 positions remain vacant. The confirmation process for director nominee Kim Ji-yong has also stalled amid opposition from hard-liners and ongoing vetting, with no date yet set for a National Assembly confirmation hearing.
arin@heraldcorp.com
