Park Gyuntaek: "Ministry of Government Legislation Should Put the Brakes on Prosecutors' Illegal Direct Investigations"

Minister of Legislation: "Delegation by Presidential Decree is Problematic... Should be Established by Law"

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Gyuntaek is questioning Director Lee Wankyoo at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee hearing held at the National Assembly on the 14th. [Photo by Park Gyuntaek's office]

Park Gyuntaek, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea representing Gwangju Gwangsan Gap, pointed out the illegality of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's "Regulations on the Scope of Crimes for Prosecutors' Investigation Initiation," which violates the parent law, the Prosecutors' Office Act, during the National Assembly's audit of the Ministry of Government Legislation held on the 14th.

The National Assembly had previously reduced the scope of prosecutors' direct investigations from the original six major crimes (corruption, economy, public officials, elections, defense projects, large-scale disasters, etc.) to two major crimes (corruption, economy) to prevent abuse of power by the prosecution.

At the audit, Representative Park stated, "The Yoon Seok-yeol administration expanded the scope of crimes for prosecutors' direct investigation initiation through enforcement ordinances, disregarding the parent law, the Prosecutors' Office Act," and added, "The enforcement ordinance, arbitrarily reflecting the president's wishes created by the prosecution, should be stopped by the Ministry of Government Legislation."

He also said, "It would have been better if the scope of prosecutors' direct investigations had been more explicitly enumerated when the Prosecutors' Office Act was amended," and continued, "If one judges the purpose and process of the amendment to reduce the six major crimes to two major crimes with common sense, one would recognize that arbitrarily expanding the scope of prosecutors' direct investigations is illegal."

In response, Lee Wankyu, head of the Ministry of Government Legislation, said, "While restricting the scope of crimes subject to prosecutors' direct investigations, problems arose due to the delegation provisions," and added, "The delegation of prosecutors' investigative authority to presidential decrees itself is problematic. The fundamental solution should be established by law according to the major principle of criminal procedure law, the legality principle in criminal procedure."