Lee Seok-yeon, chairman of the Presidential Committee for National Unity [Yonhap]
Lee Seok-yeon, chairman of the Presidential Committee for National Unity [Yonhap]

Lee Seok-yeon, chairman of the Presidential Committee for National Unity, said Sunday that completely abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers would be unconstitutional.

Writing on Facebook that day, Lee said prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers "must be recognized in some form to uphold the spirit of the Constitution."

Lee said the Constitution does not bar dissolving the Prosecution Service or redistributing prosecutors' authority, but that "completely stripping prosecutors of their investigative powers as the subject of investigations would run counter to the principle of systematic constitutional legitimacy and could be unconstitutional."

He went on to say that if the powers were to be completely removed, the Constitution would need to be amended — either replacing prosecutors with investigative agencies as the entities authorized to request warrants, as was the case under the founding constitution, or delegating the matter to legislation.

The current Constitution requires a prosecutor's warrant request before carrying out an arrest, detention, or search and seizure. Lee's argument is that fully eliminating prosecutors' investigative powers by statute would conflict with that constitutional provision.

Lee also criticized the Democratic Party of Korea, saying that "a responsible political party must not abandon the fundamental principles for the future of the community in the name of reform, merely to cater to its base or pursue partisan interests."

He added that "institutions themselves are neither good nor evil — it is a matter of the people who operate them," and said he hoped "the pressing issues driving serious national division in our society will be discussed and resolved in accordance with the Constitution and sound public common sense, grounded in legal stability and predictability."


husn7@heraldcorp.com