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The prosecution is facing abolition under the new Government Organization Act. / Photo by Song Ui-ju

With the passage of the Government Organization Act, the abolition of the Prosecutors’ Office has entered a countdown after 78 years. But whether the overhaul can be implemented within the one-year grace period remains uncertain. The challenge lies in revising related legal frameworks, establishing the new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (SCIA), and reallocating personnel—all while core questions such as supplementary investigation powers and the division of roles among investigative bodies remain unresolved.

On Sept. 26, the revised act passed the National Assembly, setting in motion the closure of the Prosecutors’ Office, established in 1948. Starting October next year, prosecutorial investigative powers will be transferred to the SCIA under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, while prosecutorial authority will move to a new Prosecution Service under the Ministry of Justice. The government has announced plans to detail the design through a task force under the Prime Minister’s Office. Yet experts warn that revising the Code of Criminal Procedure, restructuring the Criminal Justice Information System (KICS), and reassigning personnel within a year is highly unrealistic.

A key unresolved issue is whether the Prosecution Service will have direct supplementary investigative powers or merely the authority to request further investigations. Many argue that to ensure substantive truth-finding and continuity in prosecution, real investigative authority is necessary. Other contentious points include whether all cases handled by first-line investigative agencies (police and SCIA) must be forwarded to the Prosecution Service, and how far its supervisory powers over investigations should extend. While there is consensus on the need for minimum safeguards to prevent abuse or concealment of cases, concrete agreements are lacking.

Lim Moo-young, a former prosecutor turned lawyer, criticized the reform as “abolishing the prosecution first while leaving the essential design blank.” He stressed: “Hundreds of provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure must be revised, yet the basic operating rules are missing. It’s practically impossible to rebuild the entire system—organization, manpower, and IT—within a year. If rushed, the SCIA will end up as nothing more than a copy of the National Police Agency.”

He warned that the reform risks being like “removing the foundation stone and hoping the building still stands,” and urged sufficient deliberation to avoid a hasty overhaul.