[Exclusive] Attempt to Divert Attention from 'Drug Investigation'? Prosecutors, Police, and Customs' Joint Drug Task Force Collapses

Office of Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, planned to launch 'Drug Joint Investigation Headquarters'
Prosecutors establish 'Emergency Martial Law Special Investigation Headquarters'

The launch of the Joint Investigation Headquarters for Drug Crimes (합수본), which the government had been promoting, has been confirmed to have been canceled following the 'martial law incident.' Attention is also focused on the background, as it is known that President Yoon Seok-yeol himself planned to announce the launch on the 4th.

Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Yonhap News Agency

According to the legal community on the 9th, the drug 합수본 was originally scheduled to be launched abruptly at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office on that day, but it was effectively canceled over the past weekend. According to an insider familiar with the situation, President Yoon planned to hold a 'Drug Response Situation Review Meeting' at the Presidential Office on the 4th and personally announce the launch of the drug 합수본.

In fact, the schedule was notified to the press corps at the Presidential Office just about 3 hours and 30 minutes before President Yoon's announcement of martial law on the 3rd. The list of dispatched personnel, totaling about 100 from the prosecution, police, and Customs Service, had already been finalized and communicated last week. Park Young-bin, Chief Prosecutor of the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office, had been appointed as the inaugural head of the drug 합수본.

However, just before President Yoon's announcement, the problematic martial law declaration and lifting incident occurred. On the morning of the 4th, the schedule for the Presidential Office's Drug Response Situation Review Meeting was canceled, and the launch of the drug 합수본 was aborted. The office prepared at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office for the drug 합수본 was instead occupied by the Special Investigation Headquarters for Martial Law under the prosecution.

However, there is controversy over whether the prosecution has the authority to investigate charges of rebellion, and since President Yoon remains in office, there are criticisms that investigations targeting the appointing authority have limitations, raising doubts about whether the special investigation headquarters can be maintained. The Democratic Party of Korea proposed a permanent special prosecutor bill on the 6th, which is scheduled to be reviewed by the National Assembly.