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What the Democratic Party is promoting now is actually the government's task of reforming the prosecution this time, and it was also the promise of candidate Lee Jae-myung in the last presidential election.
The purpose of the prosecution is to reduce the harm caused by the excessive investigation by the prosecution and to check the power of the prosecution, whereas the prosecution argues that if the function of investigating serious crimes is weakened, the damage will eventually go to the public, and thus the side effects will be greater.
Reporter Hong Young-jae summarizes the background and issues of this controversy.
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The MBC PD notebook reported mad cow disease, which was indicted by the prosecution for defamation but found not guilty.
Jeong Yeon-joo, former president of KBS, was acquitted on charges of breach of trust.
In 2019, the Prosecution's Past History Committee concluded that the Lee Myung-bak administration's prosecution had abused its prosecution powers in its investigation of two cases.
The Democratic Party's judgment is that an unreasonable investigation tailored to the taste of the regime was possible because there was a prosecutor who gathered power with both investigative and prosecution powers.
In January of last year, the Moon Jae-in administration, which proposed a reform of the prosecution, narrowed the scope of the prosecution's investigation by adjusting the powers to investigate and created a separate investigation body for high-ranking public officials.
In addition, the final draft is that the prosecution's investigation duties will be removed or a new Serious Crime Investigation Agency will be established exclusively for investigations, leaving only the prosecution and public prosecution functions.
Rep. Hwang Un-ha, a former police officer who introduced the bill, explained that if the investigation function is separated, "the six major crimes investigations currently in charge of the prosecution will simply evaporate, and the total amount of national investigations will be reduced."
Prosecutors are concerned that investigations into serious crimes, which have been shrunk by the adjustment of investigative powers, will weaken further.
The prosecution's investigative capabilities in special areas such as corruption and financial investigations can be dead, and the national criminal justice system will be shaken if even the prosecution fails to intervene in a situation in which cases are delayed due to a large number of police officers.
[Kim Ye-won / Attorney: How to make a system that can find and punish certain criminals without degenerating into a power game or a power game about who has the investigative power (important)]
Changes in the criminal justice system are As it has a large impact on real life, it is necessary to find a solution from the viewpoint of the public's convenience, away from the political battleground.
(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan, video editing: Hwang Ji-young, CG: Im Chan-hyuk)