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[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution's internal network ‘Eprose’ is heating up over the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (Gong-su-cheo).

On the 9th, according to the prosecution, frontline prosecutors are openly criticizing the behavior of Gong-su-cheo investigating the case of the leaked indictment of Seoul High Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon. There are also posts questioning the necessity of Gong-su-cheo, pointing out issues such as sloppy investigations in other cases handled by Gong-su-cheo. Some posts receive dozens of comments. This is the so-called ‘Gong-su-cheo bashing.’ Prosecutor Lee Seung-young of Daejeon High Prosecutor's Office posted on Eprose the day before, stating that "Gong-su-cheo has deviated from the basic route in investigating the indictment leak." He said they are failing to conduct even the basics of the investigation. He added, "Since it is highly likely that the leaker cannot be found by checking who searched the indictment within the prosecution, the basic starting point of the investigation should be to trace back through the SNS records of the media outlets and reporters who reported it," and "Although Gong-su-cheo conducted multiple raids on the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Department regarding the accusation of report solicitation, they did not secure materials from the Inspection Department in this case." He also stated that the indictment leak by the high prosecutor does not constitute a crime of leaking official secrets as it does not impair national functions.

Chief Prosecutor Kang Su-san-na of Incheon District Prosecutors' Office argued that the Gong-su-cheo Act should be reconsidered and revised from the ground up. She said, "Gong-su-cheo, which was launched to check the prosecution, is showing bigger problems than the prosecution in various aspects such as human rights protection, investigative ability, and political neutrality." It is reported that Ye Se-min, head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Policy Department, compiled criticisms and protest posts related to Gong-su-cheo and conveyed them by phone to Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk of Gong-su-cheo.

In response to the prosecutors' offensive, Gong-su-cheo has not issued any particular statements and is taking a defensive stance. The arrest warrant for Prosecutor Son Jun-sung, the key figure in the report solicitation suspicion that Gong-su-cheo has devoted all its efforts to, was twice rejected by the court. Gong-su-cheo is evaluated to have lost the legitimacy necessary to continue the investigation. At Son's pre-arrest detention hearing on the 2nd, Deputy Chief Yeowoon-guk controversially called Gong-su-cheo "amateurs" by saying, "Prosecutor Son, who has conducted special investigations for over 10 years, and his lawyer are obstructing the amateurish Gong-su-cheo investigation." Voices saying that the money spent on Gong-su-cheo is wasted are also growing louder. Gong-su-cheo was allocated 19.999 billion KRW in the next year's budget passed by the National Assembly plenary session on the 3rd. This is nearly double the approximately 12 billion KRW spent from the general reserve fund at its launch in July.

Gong-su-cheo is trying to find a breakthrough with the suspicion of ‘judge surveillance document creation.’ However, this also seems difficult as they have not been able to schedule the summons of Prosecutor Son. Gong-su-cheo Chief Kim Jin-wook is expected to attend the full meeting of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee in the afternoon and respond to criticisms surrounding Gong-su-cheo.