Ministry of Justice and Opposition Clash Over Prosecutors' Special Activity Funds... Heated Debate Over Guidelines

As the National Assembly reviews the detailed contents of next year's government budget proposal, tensions are escalating between the Ministry of Justice and the Democratic Party of Korea over the prosecution's special activity expenses budget.

During the budget subcommittee review process of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the matter, a heated exchange took place between the Ministry of Justice and Democratic Party members of the committee.

Prosecution
Photo by Yonhap News

According to the National Assembly meeting minutes released on the 13th, Democratic Party lawmaker Park Yong-jin criticized the prosecution's special activity expenses guidelines at the Legislative and Judiciary Committee's Budget and Accounts Subcommittee on the 8th, using the term "trash" to point out problems.

Regarding the part of the guideline 'summary' that states "We are making efforts to manage and execute transparently, such as proactively submitting to the National Assembly," Park said, "If you copy 10,000 sheets and scatter them at Gwanghwamun Square, people will just pick them up as trash. No one looks at them, no one cares."

He continued, "They say this is an enormous secret and hide it, telling us to submit it, but are they insulting lawmakers and wasting time like this?" and criticized, "It’s pathetic to have wasted time over something like this."

The Ministry of Justice recently disclosed these guidelines in the National Assembly following the Democratic Party's demand. On the 2nd, at the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon stated, "Previous governments did not disclose this, but we will disclose and explain it in line with other agencies." The Democratic Party welcomed this.

In response to Park's criticism, Shin Ja-yong, Director of the Ministry of Justice's Prosecution Bureau, objected, saying, "How can you call guidelines that were not submitted for several governments 'trash' when they were submitted after long consultations and careful consideration with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office?"

He added, "Why is it not progressive? Why was it not submitted in the previous government? Didn’t the committee members also say to refer to other agencies' submission cases and submit accordingly?"

As the meeting atmosphere grew tense, Park clarified, "What I meant was that even if you copy and scatter it on the street, people won’t pay attention and will judge the paper as trash," adding, "I did not mean to say the content itself is trash."

Following this, both sides also had a heated debate over the Prosecutor General’s direct decision on how to allocate the special activity expenses assigned annually to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to regional offices.

Park questioned, "Is it appropriate for the Prosecutor General to hold everything and then make a judgment again?" and warned, "If I say it strongly, it’s arbitrary execution." Shin responded, "As a person, not a machine, the most accurate and balanced judgment can only be made by the Prosecutor General," and rebutted, "He would never allocate more just because he likes a certain investigation."

The Ministry of Justice proposed that a total of 56.2 billion KRW (48.2 billion KRW for specific task expenses and 8 billion KRW for special activity expenses) be allocated in next year’s budget for expenses necessary for prosecution investigation work.

They stated that this was the minimum necessary considering the increase in prosecution duties following the adjustment of investigative authority between the police and prosecution, as well as the increase in direct supplementary investigation workload under the investigation guidelines implemented this month.

The prosecution's special activity expenses have gradually decreased from 17.9 billion KRW in 2017, the first year of the Moon Jae-in administration, to 9.4 billion KRW in 2020, 8.4 billion KRW in 2021, and 8 billion KRW in 2022. The special activity expenses related to recent drug investigations have also continued to decline, currently standing at about 275 million KRW.

In contrast, the Democratic Party maintains its stance that the special activity expenses should be cut, raising suspicions of arbitrary use by the prosecution, and clashes with the Ministry of Justice are expected to continue. The Democratic Party argues that there is no basis to judge the appropriateness of the special activity expenses execution or the validity of the calculation basis and insists on a full cut. They also consider cuts to specific task expenses inevitable, given the reduction in direct prosecution investigations following the adjustment of investigative authority.

As the two sides failed to narrow their differences, the Legislative and Judiciary Committee postponed deliberations on budget items related to special activity expenses. Going forward, the Budget Committee will take over and continue the review.