The Prosecution Service and the Major Crime Investigation Agency are set to launch in about ten days, but the likelihood of filling their leadership positions on time is diminishing. Concerns are growing that the criminal justice system may face a leadership vacuum as the selection process for the Minister of Justice has reverted to square one.
According to legal sources on the 20th, the Minister of Justice position has been vacant for nearly a month since former Minister Jeong Seong-ho stepped down on August 26. Kim Seung-won, who was nominated just 20 days prior, resigned the day before, necessitating a restart of the nomination and confirmation process in the National Assembly.
Currently, Lee Jin-soo, the Deputy Minister of Justice, is acting in the ministerial role. However, he faces the burden of managing key issues such as finalizing the Prosecution Service's organizational structure, subsequent appointments, and the transfer of existing cases from the prosecution.
The Ministry of Justice's proposal for the Prosecution Service's organizational structure, announced on September 4, has yet to be finalized. The proposal includes restructuring 43 investigative and joint investigation departments in local prosecutors' offices into 29 specialized major crime units and establishing a Judicial Control Division to review cases not prosecuted by the police. However, demands for a review of the division's name and the number of prosecutors have led to revisions.
The selection process for the Prosecutor General, who will lead the Prosecution Service, has not even begun. The Ministry's candidate recommendation committee must recommend at least three candidates, from which the minister will propose one to the president, but the committee has not yet been formed.
The Prosecutor General position has been vacant since former Prosecutor General Sim Woo-jung retired in July 2022, leaving the role unfilled for over a year and two months. The Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Koo Ja-hyun, who has been acting in the role, has also submitted his resignation, leaving Park Gyu-hyung, the head of the Planning and Coordination Department, to effectively serve as the 'acting acting' chief. The Prosecution Service is likely to launch under the existing acting leadership structure.
The situation is similar for the Major Crime Investigation Agency. President Yoon Suk-yeol nominated attorney Kim Ji-yong as the first head of the agency on September 8, but the confirmation request has not been submitted to the National Assembly as additional vetting continues. Given the remaining procedures, including the confirmation hearing and the adoption of a report, it is uncertain whether the appointment will be finalized before the agency's launch.
The agency's operational foundation is also incomplete. The final number of applicants for special appointments to the Major Crime Investigation Agency stands at 1,761, which is only 61.3% of the total quota of 2,874, prompting the government to conduct additional recruitment. Establishing an independent criminal justice information system is expected to take over three years, necessitating the temporary use of the police system.
There are also challenges regarding jurisdiction and transfer criteria between agencies. The investigative targets of the Major Crime Investigation Agency may overlap with those of the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials, but specific adjustment criteria have not been established. The Investigation Authority Adjustment Council is not set to convene until February 5 of next year.
In a recent performance plan submitted to the National Assembly, the Major Crime Investigation Agency identified jurisdictional conflicts and procedural duality as major threats to timely investigations. Legal professionals express concern that if the leadership and collaboration standards are not established in time, there could be jurisdictional clashes over significant cases and delays in handling public welfare cases.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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