People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun. [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun. [Yonhap]

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun questioned whether the government and the Democratic Party are prepared to take responsibility for the fallout from a revised Criminal Procedure Act that strips prosecutors of their supplementary investigative powers. The law takes effect Oct. 2.

Yoon posted a message on Facebook on Saturday titled "Burning down the house to kill a bedbug," sharply criticizing the Democratic Party for pushing through the criminal justice overhaul.

"First they abolished the Prosecution Service, and now they've eliminated prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority," he wrote. "On Oct. 2, South Korea's criminal justice system — built over more than 70 years — will be completely transformed. Are they ready to take responsibility? Can the new system actually function?"

He added that the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, set to take over cases, has yet to establish its organizational structure, job classifications or budget, and that both its main office and regional branches plan to operate out of leased buildings. A preparatory team has reportedly been approaching sitting senior prosecutors directly to recruit them, he said.

"The police are in no better shape," Yoon said, noting that the government's announced plan to add 1,200 investigators would not involve new hires but rather reassigning existing security personnel.

According to Yoon, as of 2024, there were 32,935 suspects at the supplementary investigation stage. Of those, 8,674 involved fraud cases — including jeonse fraud and voice phishing — that require tracing bank accounts and communications records to their end.

"The caseload is growing and the time is shrinking, but the staffing has not changed," he said. "You can overhaul a system overnight, but you cannot build investigative capacity overnight. Can this really work?"

Yoon urged the government to disclose the full state of its preparations before Oct. 2 in a way the public can accept. "How many positions have been filled? Is the budget sufficient? What are the criteria for transferring cases? These questions must be answered clearly before the public and the National Assembly," he said.

"Having a building does not make an investigation," he added. "Decades of accumulated experience, expertise and inter-agency cooperation must all move together before the public can truly be protected. If this was not simply a case of burning down the house to kill a bedbug, prove it to the public now."

Yoon closed by asking: "Starting Oct. 2, who will handle the public's cases? Where will victims find protection? Is the new system truly ready to function? The government and the Democratic Party owe the public answers."


cook@heraldcorp.com