[Serious Accident Punishment Act D-1] Supreme Prosecutors' Office Expands Serious Accident Investigation Support Team... 1st Meeting Today

Formation of the 'Serious Accident Investigation Support Task Force' established at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. / Photo by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] On the 26th, one day before the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office expanded the scale of the recently launched 'Serious Accident Investigation Support Task Force' (hereinafter Task Force) and held its first meeting.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced that it expanded the Task Force, which was launched to swiftly and strictly exercise prosecutorial authority over serious accident cases that threaten the lives and safety of the public, to a total of 15 members.

The Task Force reinforced the prosecution's investigative capabilities in the field of serious accidents and aimed to bring about fundamental changes in awareness by adding five prosecutorial researchers, two professors from the Judicial Research and Training Institute, and two frontline specialized prosecutors, enabling systematic and effective investigative support at the frontline offices. At the frontline, one specialized prosecutor for serious industrial accidents and one for serious civic accidents from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office were included in the Task Force.

Meanwhile, the Task Force held its first meeting from 2 p.m. on the same day at the 8th-floor conference room of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, to derive detailed solutions for assigned tasks.

At the meeting, the Task Force discussed detailed task promotion and the formation plan of an advisory body on serious accidents across four subcommittees: ▲ improvement of work division ▲ investigation cooperation measures ▲ strengthening investigative capabilities ▲ victim support activities.

Additionally, they decided to focus their efforts on building a new criminal system centered on public safety through ▲ domestic and international legal research related to serious accidents ▲ discovery of practical sentencing factors ▲ training of specialized prosecutors for safety accidents.

Earlier, on the 18th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office established the Investigation Support Task Force led by Deputy Prosecutor General Park Seong-jin and organized the Serious Industrial Accident Team and Serious Civic Accident Team under it. This measure was taken considering that serious accidents under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act are classified into two types: serious industrial accidents and serious civic accidents.

Article 2 (Definitions) Clause 1 of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act defines serious accidents as serious industrial accidents and serious civic accidents. Clause 2 of the same article defines serious industrial accidents under the Industrial Safety and Health Act as accidents where ▲ one or more deaths occur ▲ two or more injuries requiring treatment for six months or longer occur from the same accident ▲ three or more occupational diseases such as acute poisoning caused by the same harmful factor occur within one year.

Clause 3 of the same article defines serious civic accidents as accidents caused by defects in the design, manufacture, installation, or management of specific raw materials or products, public facilities, or public transportation means, where ▲ one or more deaths occur ▲ ten or more injuries requiring treatment for two months or longer occur from the same accident ▲ ten or more illnesses requiring treatment for three months or longer occur from the same cause.

The Serious Industrial Accident Team is led by Lee Jeong-hyun, Head of the Public Investigation Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and Deputy Head Lim Gil-seop, Head of the Labor Investigation Support Division. The Serious Civic Accident Team is led by Kim Ji-yong, Head of the Criminal Department, and Deputy Head Shin Dong-won, Head of the Criminal Division 3 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, who oversee the work.

At the meeting, the Task Force decided to promptly form a 'Serious Accident Advisory Body' composed of industrial safety experts recommended by national institutions, local governments, business circles, and labor groups. In the regular personnel reshuffle conducted the previous day, the Ministry of Justice decided to dispatch Prosecutors Oh Jae-jun and Moon Jae-woong as prosecutorial researchers to support the advisory body to be established at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

The advisory body will play a role in presenting tasks in areas such as efficient initial investigation methods, discovery of sentencing factors applicable to those responsible for serious accidents, and strengthening expertise in investigation and prosecution.

On the 21st, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office held a meeting of investigative agencies' countermeasures council with related agencies such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the National Police Agency to discuss response measures to strengthen mutual cooperation in investigating serious accident cases.

On the 24th, they distributed a penalty interpretation guidebook interpreting the punishment provisions of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act to frontline prosecutors' offices and sent official letters designating dedicated prosecutors for serious accident cases. On the same day, sentencing guidelines related to the prosecution of serious accident cases were distributed to frontline offices.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office stated, "Each team and subcommittee will hold meetings at least once a month to derive concrete promotion plans and ensure thorough support for frontline serious accident investigations."