[Reporter’s Notebook] The End of the Era of Special Investigation Prosecutorialism

Perceived as One with the "Yoon Cabinet"
Restoring the Prosecution's Identity as a Judicial Oversight Institution

"There is Yoon's (former President Yoon Suk-yeol's) original sin, isn't there?"

This phrase, which makes prosecutors in Seocho-dong "Ipkkukdat" (a situation where one is forced to keep their mouth shut), carries significant weight. With just these words, prosecutors who had been voicing complaints such as "A police dictatorship is coming" or "It will become a paradise for criminals" suddenly fall silent. One chief prosecutor even confessed, "At that time, the president and the prosecution appeared to be one and the same. Now, even when we are attacked with the 'pro-Yoon frame,' we can no longer counter by saying, 'We are different.' The special investigation prosecutors contributed to this."

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration's cabinet was so filled with pro-prosecution figures that it was called prosecutorial inbreeding. This is why the recent demand for the death penalty against former President Yoon is being interpreted as the failure of the 'prosecutor's republic.' Close aides of President Yoon, such as former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and People Power Party lawmaker Kwon Seong-dong, who are all connected through prosecutorial networks, failed to prevent the absurd martial law. The public no longer wants prosecutors like those who produced former President Yoon, nor do they want prosecutors of the "Yoon Suk-yeol type."

Now, how should the prosecution define its own identity? One deputy chief prosecutor spoke of the downfall of the special investigation division. He reflected, "Instead of promoting the special investigation division and reflecting the number of intelligence investigations in evaluations and personnel decisions, we should have focused on checking whether police investigations were in accordance with the law and procedures, and whether there were any human rights violations." This is a valid point. In fact, the origin of the prosecution was not in investigation but in judicial oversight of the police.

However, when prosecutors are asked about their identity as human rights defenders, they tilt their heads in confusion. This is due to an organizational culture that has long regarded special investigations as its main function. In most prosecutors' offices, the position of human rights officer is considered a sideline, often held concurrently with the spokesperson. But that era has ended. The public no longer wants all-powerful prosecutors who set targets and pursue investigations like hunters with the sole aim of indictment.

The new prosecution reform bill has granted the Ministry of the Interior and Safety the authority to investigate and direct nine major crimes. The ministry now wields absolute power over public safety and investigations. Paradoxically, this highlights the importance of the prosecution's judicial oversight function. What is needed now is not another powerful investigative agency, but a system of checks and balances to control this dinosaur-like power. The only entity capable of fulfilling this function is the prosecution itself.

The answer becomes even clearer when recalling the prosecution's most shining moments in history. The exposure of the torture and death of Park Jongcheol remains a historical precedent. The prosecution did not survive by the sword, but by establishing its identity as a defender of human rights and an institution of judicial oversight.

If the prosecution is to establish a new identity, the direction is clear. It is not to create a second prosecution office by sending prosecutors in the form of judicial investigators to the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency. Rather, it is to focus on the role of judicial oversight over the police, centered on the authority to receive all cases and to request supplementary investigations. The prosecution must lay down the sword of direct investigation and return to being a brake of control and oversight. Only then can the prosecution escape from Yoon's original sin.