Yoon Visits Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office and District Prosecutors' Office... Silent on Questions About Separation of Investigation and Prosecution

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol visited the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office and Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office on the 20th. This is his second visit following his visit to the Busan High Prosecutors' Office and District Prosecutors' Office on the 13th.

On the afternoon of the day, Prosecutor General Yoon visited the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office and District Prosecutors' Office and expressed his feelings, saying, "I am very glad to be back in Gwangju after 15 years." At the front of the building, rallies by civic groups supporting Prosecutor General Yoon and civic groups urging prosecutorial reform were held simultaneously.

When asked for his opinion on this, Prosecutor General Yoon did not give a direct answer but instead recalled his past experience working in Gwangju. He said, "I remember having a farewell ceremony at this very spot around this time 15 years ago," adding, "As the representative of the transferring prosecutors, I greeted those remaining, and perhaps because I had grown very fond of Gwangju during my two years of service, I was at a loss for words, so the chief prosecutor helped conclude with applause."

Prosecutor General Yoon continued, "The building and surrounding structures remain the same, so it is very pleasant. I will share the rest of the story with the staff," and then entered the building. He also did not provide a separate answer when asked about his opinion on the plan to separate investigation and prosecution.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, Prosecutor General Yoon had a friendly talk with prosecution executives including Park Sung-jin, Chief Prosecutor of the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office, and Moon Chan-seok, Chief Prosecutor of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office. He is scheduled to pay a courtesy visit to Hwang Byung-ha, Chief Judge of the Gwangju High Court, and Park Byung-chil, Chief Judge of the Gwangju District Court, and hold a closed-door meeting with staff at the prosecution office.

Since his inauguration in July last year, Prosecutor General Yoon has started a regional tour beginning with Busan. Following Gwangju, he is considering visiting Daegu or Daejeon next week. In Daegu, frontline prosecutors have attracted attention by consecutively posting articles on the internal prosecution network 'Eprose' raising issues about the plan to separate investigation and prosecution. However, considering the spread of COVID-19 in the Daegu area, there is also a possibility that Daejeon will be chosen instead of Daegu.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice announced the day before that it would postpone the nationwide chief prosecutors' meeting originally scheduled for the 21st. Initially, Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae intended to hear the opinions of chief prosecutors on the adjustment of investigative authority between the police and prosecution, the enactment of subordinate laws related to the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office bill, the decentralized criminal justice system, and the improvement of prosecutorial investigation practices and organizational culture. Although the Ministry of Justice stated that the sudden postponement was to respond to COVID-19, there is also analysis suggesting it was in consideration of the ongoing internal opposition within the prosecution for several days. The Ministry of Justice plans to reschedule the chief prosecutors' meeting once the COVID-19 situation subsides. However, given the continuous increase in confirmed cases, it seems practically difficult for the meeting to be held in the near future.