South Korean President Lee Jae Myung (C) speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, South Korea, 04 August 2026. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
Aug. 4 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Cabinet approved a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act on Tuesday that will eliminate prosecutors’ authority to conduct criminal investigations, fundamentally restructuring the country’s criminal justice system 72 years after the law was enacted in 1954.
President Lee Jae Myung approved the bill during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae despite calls from critics for him to veto the legislation.
“There have been considerable disputes and disagreements, but it is difficult to conclude that this bill presents problems serious enough to reject the National Assembly’s legislative authority, such as being unconstitutional, impossible to enforce, contrary to the national interest or an infringement on the executive branch’s inherent powers,” Lee said.
Lee described the separation of investigation and prosecution as “the first step toward normalizing an abnormal system” and a starting point for broader reform of the justice system.
“Separating investigation from prosecution is an inevitable measure that follows the proper course of justice by placing every powerful state institution, without exception, under public control,” Lee said.
The president’s remarks appeared intended to end debate surrounding the legislation after the National Assembly passed it Friday.
Politicians and legal experts had called on Lee to exercise his constitutional authority to request reconsideration of the bill. Lee previously said prosecutors might need to retain supplementary investigative authority in certain exceptional cases.
He had also said, however, that the National Assembly should make the final decision. The president apparently determined that further debate would be inappropriate after lawmakers voted to eliminate prosecutors’ investigative powers entirely.
Lee also raised concerns about concentrating investigative authority in the police.
“Are the police truly assuming responsibility commensurate with the scale of their authority? I am not yet entirely confident,” Lee said.
“Too much power was given to prosecutors, it was abused and the entire system became a mess,” he said. “The outcome was certainly not a good one.”
Lee ordered the government to develop internal reforms and institutional safeguards to prevent the police from monopolizing investigative authority, expanding excessively or engaging in misconduct during investigations.
The revised law removes the legal basis for prosecutors to initiate direct investigations after independently identifying suspected crimes. It also eliminates their authority to conduct supplementary investigations into cases transferred by the police.
Prosecutors will still be allowed to request that judicial police officers conduct additional investigations. Police will generally be required to complete the requested work within two months.
The legislation will take effect Oct. 2. Several detailed provisions will be implemented in stages within six months, one year or three years after promulgation to allow government agencies time to prepare.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260805010001261
