{"id":24087,"date":"2026-08-01T09:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T04:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24087"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T04:36:24","slug":"south-koreas-acting-prosecutor-general-resigns-over-reform-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24087","title":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s acting prosecutor general resigns over reform bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/4271785543973\/2026\/i\/17855467342867\/v1.5\/South-Koreas-acting-prosecutor-general-resigns-over-reform-bill.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Acting Prosecutor General Koo Ja-hyun delivers a joint police-prosecution statement on combating artificial intelligence-generated disinformation at the Government Complex Seoul on Feb. 26. Photo by Asia Today&#13;\n                                            <\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 31 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> South Korea&#8217;s acting prosecutor general submitted his resignation Friday after the National Assembly passed legislation eliminating prosecutors&#8217; authority to conduct supplementary investigations.<\/p>\n<p>Koo Ja-hyun said he felt responsible for the overhaul of the country&#8217;s criminal justice system and had submitted his resignation.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The revision to the Criminal Procedure Act, centered on abolishing prosecutors&#8217; supplementary investigative authority, passed the National Assembly today,&#8221; Koo said at the Supreme Prosecutors&#8217; Office in southern Seoul.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I also feel a strong sense of responsibility that the law was revised while concerns raised by legal experts, other professionals and the public remain unresolved,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The National Assembly passed the bill Friday under the leadership of the governing Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation bars prosecutors from conducting additional investigative work after receiving cases from police. Prosecutors will instead be required to ask police to perform supplementary investigations.<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Party says the change completes the separation of investigative and prosecutorial powers and prevents prosecutors from exercising excessive authority.\n<\/p>\n<p>Opposition lawmakers, prosecutors and some legal experts have warned that the system could delay cases and weaken protection for crime victims.<\/p>\n<p><b>Koo warns of investigative gaps<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Koo said prosecutors needed to reflect deeply on their failure to earn public trust.<\/p>\n<p>He said, however, that institutional reform should not undermine the prosecution&#8217;s responsibility to uncover the truth and protect victims and other people involved in criminal cases.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even when institutional reform is carried out for those reasons, the essential purpose of the prosecution system &#8211; discovering the substantive truth and protecting victims and other parties &#8211; must not be damaged,&#8221; Koo said.<\/p>\n<p>Koo said he had repeatedly considered how the system could be changed while protecting citizens&#8217; rights and safeguarding society from crime.<\/p>\n<p>He said prosecutors had warned lawmakers that the revision could force them to make indictment decisions based only on written investigative records.<\/p>\n<p>Under that structure, prosecutors could have difficulty independently checking disputed facts, identifying gaps in police investigations or responding directly to victims&#8217; concerns, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Koo also warned that repeatedly returning cases to police could create a more costly and inefficient process.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those concerns were not accepted and the amendment passed without change,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is difficult to conceal my disappointment and sense of helplessness.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>Koo urged the government to conduct another review of possible gaps in the system after the legislation is formally transferred from the National Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I sincerely hope our criminal justice system will develop in a direction that ensures every citizen is protected fairly under the law,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><b>Prosecution faces another leadership vacancy<\/b><\/p>\n<p>South Korea&#8217;s prosecution service has already been operating without a formally appointed prosecutor general.<\/p>\n<p>Koo has led the organization in an acting capacity while serving as deputy prosecutor general.<\/p>\n<p>His departure would leave the service under what South Korean media described as an &#8220;acting acting chief.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If Koo&#8217;s resignation is accepted, Park Kyu-hyung, head of the Supreme Prosecutors&#8217; Office&#8217;s planning and coordination department, is expected to assume the duties of acting prosecutor general.<\/p>\n<p>The leadership vacancy comes as the government prepares to replace the existing prosecution service with a new Public Prosecution Office and establish a separate Serious Crimes Investigation Agency.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Prosecution Office will focus on indictments and courtroom prosecutions, while the new investigative agency will handle major crimes previously investigated directly by prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>The two agencies are scheduled to launch Oct. 2.<\/p>\n<p>The transition will require the government to determine how pending cases, personnel, records and investigative responsibilities will be transferred.\n<\/p>\n<p><i style=\"letter-spacing: 0.04em;\">&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260731010011845\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260731010011845<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acting Prosecutor General Koo Ja-hyun delivers a joint police-prosecution statement on combating artificial intelligence-generated disinformation at the Government Complex Seoul on Feb. 26. Photo by Asia Today&#13; July 31 (Asia Today) &#8212; South Korea&#8217;s acting prosecutor general submitted his resignation Friday after the National Assembly passed legislation eliminating prosecutors&#8217; authority to conduct supplementary investigations. Koo&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/i\/4271785543973\/2026\/1\/17855467342867\/v1.5\/South-Koreas-acting-prosecutor-general-resigns-over-reform-bill.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}