Lawyer Kim Jong-min speaks at the 'Hearing on the Abolition of the Prosecution Service and the Establishment of People's Tribunals.' Captured from Sisafocus TV.

"The prosecution reform under the Lee Jae-myung administration is 100%, not 99%, identical to China's prosecutorial and criminal law system. Then why China, of all places? Is China a free and democratic country? Is it a country where the rule of law functions normally? Does it have the most exemplary criminal justice system in the world?"

Lawyer Kim Jong-min (CEO of MK Partners Law Firm) raised his voice forcefully at the 'Hearing on the Abolition of the Prosecution Service and the Establishment of People's Tribunals' hosted by the People Power Party at the National Assembly on the 11th. His anger was no mere exaggeration.

China abolished the People's Procuratorate during the Cultural Revolution, only to revive it through a constitutional amendment in 1978. However, even now, the initiative in investigations remains with the public security (police). The prosecution has almost no direct investigative powers, and its role is limited to indictment review and requests for supplementary investigations. The authority to close cases not being indicted also rests with the police.

Lawyer Kim pointed out that these systems closely resemble the prosecutorial reform proposals being pursued in Korea, like a mirror image. The structure, which completely strips the prosecution of its investigative powers and assigns them exclusively to the police, with the prosecution only reviewing whether to indict cases handed over, is a direct imitation of the Chinese public security system.

Even more serious is the establishment of a National Investigation Committee, something that does not exist even in China.

This committee, to be established under the Prime Minister, will have the authority to control and supervise all investigative agencies. Lawyer Kim directly criticized, "This is a monstrous institution that not even China has established, and it is essentially an attempt to place all investigative agencies under the control of the regime."

He pointed out the futility of the reform, saying, "They claim to eliminate politically motivated prosecutors, but ultimately, it will only give birth to politically motivated police." He argued that the core of the problem is not the prosecution organization itself but the abuse of presidential appointment power, warning that as long as political power holds the appointment authority, any system will inevitably be reduced to a "tool of power."

The practical damage is already evident in the statistics. Since the adjustment of investigative powers between the prosecution and police, the proportion of cases delayed for over three months due to the prosecution requesting supplementary investigations from the police has nearly doubled, from 16.7% in 2020 to 32.1% recently.

The proportion of unresolved fraud cases has surged from 9% in 2019 to 28% in 2023, and for embezzlement cases, it has exploded from 15.4% to a staggering 50.6%. The proportion of cases unilaterally closed by the police also rose from 36.4% in 2021 to 41% in 2024. While the damages have snowballed, the recovery rate of the victim's money is only around 3-4%.

Citing Judge Ko Sung-joon's book "Straw Society," Lawyer Kim pointed out, "Since the adjustment of investigative powers, our criminal law has been broken. The procedures have become so excessively complex that it is difficult for prosecutors, police, or lawyers to understand them properly."

He continued, "What the public is experiencing is not the fruits of reform, but increasing damages and the collapse of the legal order," and criticized the Lee Jae-myung administration for pushing forward with Chinese-style systems while ignoring the warnings of experts.

He concluded his remarks at the hearing by stating:

"President Lee Jae-myung and the Democratic Party must explain to the people. Why China? Why should we follow a system that is the complete opposite of liberal democracy? If this is a government of national sovereignty, where are the people?"

Opposition party lawmakers who attended the hearing that day also raised their voices in the same vein. The People Power Party strongly opposed, stating, "Reforms that imitate Chinese systems will ultimately lead to 'people's tribunals'," and the hearing effectively unfolded as an examination of the dangers of the 'Chinese-style abolition of the prosecution theory.'

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