Seoul Central Public Prosecution Office completes internal assignments, bolsters trial functions

The Seoul Central District Public Prosecution Office — formerly the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office — said it has completed detailed work assignments for its serious-crime indictment divisions, formerly known as the anti-corruption investigation divisions, and has reinforced its trial and litigation functions by adding more trial prosecutors.

The office said Friday it carried out the internal work assignments to reflect organizational changes and prosecutor reassignments under the prosecution office organizational decree. The restructuring follows the formal dissolution of the prosecutors' office system and the launch of the new public prosecution office system on Oct. 2. Under the organizational decree, the chief of each local prosecution office sets the specific division of duties among department heads.

The office said it divided the workload of the serious-crime indictment divisions so that each stage — from assessing serious-crime charges and handling warrants to requesting supplementary investigations and maintaining prosecutions — involves close coordination with investigative agencies.

Serious-Crime Indictment Divisions 1 and 2 will handle cases from the Seoul Metropolitan Serious Crime Investigation Office's anti-corruption investigation bureau and economic crime investigation bureau. Division 3 will take on drug investigation bureau cases; Division 4, anti-monopoly investigation bureau cases; Division 5, cases from the economic crime bureau's international economic crime investigation section and the advanced investigation bureau; and Division 6, cases from the economic crime bureau's tax crime investigation section.

The office said the arrangement was designed to ensure that each serious-crime indictment division works in close coordination with its counterpart unit at the serious crime investigation office, and that the country's capacity to respond to major crimes does not weaken — taking into account the scale and nature of each division's specialized personnel and dedicated caseload.

The serious-crime indictment divisions plan to bring key pending matters — carried over from their previous incarnations as the anti-corruption investigation division and the fair-trade investigation division — to a thorough conclusion within the grace period set out in the supplementary provisions of the Public Prosecution Office Act, and to work with the serious crime investigation office to ensure the investigation-prosecution separation model takes stable root.

The three public-affairs investigation divisions have been reorganized and reduced to two: Public Affairs and Criminal Division 1 and Division 2. Previously, the first division handled counterintelligence and terrorism cases, the second covered elections and political party finance, and the third dealt with labor, collective action and serious industrial accident cases. Under the new structure, Division 1 will handle national security, elections and political party finance cases, while Division 2 will cover labor and collective action cases. Both divisions will share responsibility for serious industrial accident cases that the former third division had handled exclusively. The liaison channel with the labor office has been consolidated under Division 2.

The office also elevated dedicated handling of serious civil disaster cases and crimes causing widespread harm to ordinary citizens — matters under the criminal divisions' purview — to the level of a division-wide priority. The office said it will work to ensure flexible collaboration both within and across divisions to protect public safety and people's livelihoods.

Criminal Division 2, which handles food and medical crimes; Criminal Division 5, which covers environmental, traffic and railway crimes; and Criminal Division 8, which handles construction and real estate crimes, are each expected to take on serious civil disaster cases. Criminal Division 4, which handles everyday economic cases, will be responsible for crimes causing widespread harm to ordinary citizens.

With the shift in the criminal justice system placing greater emphasis on prosecution functions, prosecutors previously assigned to investigative divisions have also been reassigned to trial divisions. The office also reviewed ways to allow the trial and litigation division to handle public interest representative litigation more efficiently.

The office said it increased the number of trial prosecutors with broad experience across various fields, even amid a shortage of prosecutors due to special counsel secondments and special appointments to the serious crime investigation office. The public interest representative litigation team has been moved from the planning officer's office to Trial and Litigation Division 3 to ensure it fulfills its role in close cooperation with the litigation team.

"We will work organically with relevant agencies to leave no gaps in the country's crime response system, diligently protect the rights and interests of the public based on our accumulated expertise, and continuously assess and improve our working environment to ensure the smooth operation of criminal justice procedures," an official at the Seoul Central District Public Prosecution Office said.