President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the Ministry of Justice (Supreme Prosecutors' Office) and Ministry of Gender Equality and Family briefing held at the Government Seoul Office Annex on the 19th. Photo by Yonhap News
President Lee Jae-myung on the 19th instructed officials to devise a system that would prevent the prosecution of suspects in extremely minor cases.
During a Ministry of Justice briefing held at the Government Seoul Office on the afternoon of the same day, President Lee questioned the reasoning behind indicting someone in the "Choco Pie theft" case and pointed out, "Shouldn't we create a system where prosecution is not pursued for trivial matters that have no punitive value?"
The "Choco Pie theft" case involved a union member, referred to as Mr. A, who was indicted last year for eating a Choco Pie worth 450 won and a custard worth 600 won from a refrigerator in a logistics company office. Although a fine of 50,000 won was imposed in the first trial, the case ended in acquittal after the appellate court ruled not guilty and the prosecution decided not to appeal.
President Lee noted, "In other countries, there are often regulations on how to handle minor offenses," and analyzed, "However, in our country, if an act constitutes a crime, theoretically, we are required to take action even for damages as small as 10 won."
He further stated, "From the perspective of frontline prosecutors, even if they want to suspend prosecution, they might proceed with indictment out of concern for being reprimanded if the suspect has a prior record. Therefore, I believe we need to establish a path for not prosecuting such cases."
In response, Minister of Justice Jeong Seong-ho replied, "From the public's perspective, indicting someone for this could be seen as an abuse or misuse of prosecutorial power," and added, "We will review the matter."
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