Prosecutors, investigators cramming rules as prosecution office, serious crimes agency launch with last-minute regulations

The Ministry of Justice published a flurry of amended ministerial decrees on the very day the prosecution service was abolished and the Public Prosecution Service launched. The Ministry of Interior and Safety, which oversees the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, also promulgated related decrees on the agency's opening day. The last-minute regulatory work meant staff were still catching up on the rules governing their day-to-day operations after both agencies had already opened their doors — prompting self-deprecating remarks from within the prosecution service that they were only now getting around to studying the rules they needed on the job.

According to the official gazette published Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice promulgated partial amendments to the enforcement rules of the Nationality Act and the Rules on the Protection of Foreigners on Friday. The Nationality Act enforcement rules replaced references to the "prosecution service" with "public prosecution service" on naturalization application forms. The Rules on the Protection of Foreigners amended Article 23, Paragraph 2 to replace "district prosecution office and branch office" with "district public prosecution office and branch office of the district public prosecution office."

Friday was the day the prosecution service was abolished and the Public Prosecution Service came into being. The Ministry of Justice had also promulgated dozens of partial amendments on Monday, including amendments to the Rules on Prosecution Case Procedures, the Rules on Prosecutors' Performance Evaluations, the Rules on Prosecutors' Duties, the Rules on Methods and Fees for Inspection and Copying of Case Records, and the Rules on Prosecutors' Appointment of Public Defenders, among others.

The Rules on Prosecution Case Procedures were renamed the Rules on Public Prosecution Service Case Procedures and now govern the receipt of cases and records, decisions on whether to bring charges and the maintenance of those charges, execution of sentences, and international criminal judicial cooperation at the Public Prosecution Service and its district offices and branches. On opening day, some district public prosecution offices and their branches experienced disruptions in processing public inquiries.

The renamed rules also removed provisions that had listed a prosecutor's recognition of a crime, or the receipt of a complaint, accusation or voluntary surrender, as grounds for accepting a case. The pre-acceptance inspection and action procedures were revised to require prosecutors to check whether a matter constitutes a crime that an investigative agency may open an investigation into, inform the party that complaints, accusations and voluntary surrenders may be submitted to an investigative agency, and then return the relevant documents or transfer them to the appropriate investigative agency. The changes reflect the fact that prosecutors can no longer conduct investigations directly as of Friday.

With a provision on the expert investigative advisory system removed from the amended Code of Criminal Procedure passed last August, the Ministry of Justice also promulgated a decree abolishing the Rules on the Operation of Expert Investigative Advisers. Introduced in 2007, the system allowed prosecutors to bring expert investigative advisers into investigative proceedings to clarify facts relevant to decisions on whether to bring charges. The legal basis for the system has in effect disappeared as part of the broader overhaul of the criminal justice framework.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety likewise promulgated the Rules on Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Case Procedures and the enforcement rules for the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Investigator Appointment Decree on the agency's opening day. It also published six additional statutes that day to align related laws with the enactment of the Public Prosecution Service Act and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency Act — covering the enforcement rules of the Civil Defense Basic Act, the Resident Registration Act, the Framework Act on Local Taxes, the Local Tax Collection Act, and the rules on non-profit corporations under the Ministry of Interior and Safety and its affiliated agencies.

Against this backdrop, self-deprecating remarks circulated within and around the Public Prosecution Service about having to study the new case-handling rules during the holiday period. An Mi-hyeon, deputy chief prosecutor at the Cheonan branch of the Daejeon Public Prosecution Service, posted on her SNS account on Saturday: "The investigation rules immediately needed on the front lines were amended on Sept. 29, and the case-handling rules on Monday. I was so swamped with case processing through the end of the month that I hadn't even managed a single read-through before Friday arrived. I'll need to get properly acquainted with them over the holiday."

On the opening day of the Public Prosecution Service, a court raised questions about the authority of prosecutors seconded to a special prosecutor team. Criminal Division 36 of the Seoul Central District Court is presiding over the first-instance trial of former presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-gi and former Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, both indicted by the second comprehensive special prosecutor, Special Prosecutor Kwon Chang-young, on allegations related to the relocation of the presidential residence. The court said Friday: "The court has some doubts about whether the appearance of seconded prosecutors is lawful," adding that "there does not appear to be a clear provision stating that a secondment order issued when the prosecutors belonged to the prosecution service remains valid after the agency has changed."

The court went on to say: "If the conclusion is reached that a new secondment order will be needed going forward, proceeding Tuesday could become meaningless — there is a possibility the proceedings would be rendered void. To be certain, it would seem safest to receive a secondment order from the Public Prosecution Service."

The comprehensive special prosecutor's office maintains that, under the supplementary provisions of the Public Prosecution Service Act, the secondment should be treated as continuing. Those provisions state: "Prosecutors of the former prosecution service at the time this act takes effect shall be deemed prosecutors of the Public Prosecution Service and its district offices and branches, and civil servants formerly belonging to the prosecution service shall be deemed civil servants of the Public Prosecution Service and its district offices and branches, as prescribed by presidential decree."

The Serious Crimes Investigation Agency is expected to focus on stabilizing its organization as quickly as possible. It has yet to put even basic infrastructure in place, while cases within its investigative mandate — including a recent AI-assisted hacking incident targeting the financial sector — have already emerged. The agency must also take over major cases transferred from the Public Prosecution Service. On Tuesday morning, the heads of the Suwon, Daegu, Busan and Gwangju branches of the agency — all except Seoul — were scheduled to hold doorstep press briefings at their respective regional offices.