Prosecutors to Restructure Cyber Investigation Unit

Reduced Proportion of Direct Investigations... Role Adjustment through Specialized Analysis and Support for Hacking and Cryptocurrency Tracking

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The prosecution has initiated a reorganization of its cyber investigation unit. This move comes in response to the reduction in the total volume of cybercrime investigations following the adjustment of investigative authority between the prosecution and the police. The aim is to lower the proportion of direct investigations and focus more on specialized analysis. The plan is to redesign the entire organization by preparing an optimal personnel operation plan that reflects the prosecution's organizational reform proposal, which is currently pending submission to the State Council.

According to the legal community on the 23rd, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office recently began discussions on reorganizing the cyber investigation unit within the prosecution.

Last year, the draft enforcement decree related to the adjustment of investigative authority between the prosecution and the police included provisions allowing the prosecution to investigate drug-related and cybercrimes. Although the scope of crimes for which prosecutors could initiate direct investigations was limited to corruption, economic crimes, public officials, elections, defense projects, and major disasters, cybercrime was included under major disaster crimes. However, during the process of submission to the State Council, reflecting the argument that the police have sufficient independent investigative capabilities, cybercrime was removed from the prosecution's direct investigation regulations.

As the prosecution's investigative system reform due to the reduction of investigative authority has gained momentum, there have been ongoing demands to also reorganize the cyber investigation unit. The conversion of direct investigation departments in all district prosecutor's offices into criminal and trial divisions first, and the reduction of the direct investigation command organization at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, are in line with this trend.

Accordingly, the prosecution has decided to focus more on analysis and support rather than direct investigation within cyber investigations. The role will shift to receiving and handling important cybercrime cases requiring specialized knowledge?such as hacking, malware distribution, ransomware, and virtual currency tracking?from district offices nationwide.

In particular, considering that personnel adjustments may occur due to restrictions on direct investigations, an optimal staffing model will also be derived. This will be based on job analysis, workload analysis, and personnel diagnosis results, which will be integrated to establish a mid- to long-term management strategy.

The upcoming prosecution organizational reform will also be referenced during this discussion process. The reform plan, which centers on reducing direct investigations by the prosecution, is scheduled to be submitted to the State Council on the 29th. The core of the plan is to merge the anti-corruption investigation divisions and violent crime criminal divisions at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office into anti-corruption and violent crime investigation divisions. Essentially, the division dedicated to violent cases has been absorbed by the anti-corruption investigation division, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office has already been operating by integrating the anti-corruption and violent crime divisions.

Mid-level personnel appointments within the prosecution are also a variable. Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye has announced a "historic-level personnel reshuffle," and it is expected that promotions and transfers will be conducted for almost all positions. This makes changes to the cyber investigation unit within the prosecution inevitable depending on the results of this organizational reform and personnel reshuffle. A prosecution official stated, "Based on the results of this discussion, we will establish guidelines related to cyber investigations and actively utilize them in future prosecution organizational reforms. We will also prepare a roadmap for cultivating cyber investigation experts through personnel and task adjustments."