Han Dong-hoon Points to Prosecution Reform, Warns "Gates of Hell Are Opening"… Clashes with Justice Vice Minister

He asked, "From October 2, things will change, and I said the gates of hell would open. Is the preparation going well?" urging the ministry to prepare countermeasures for the confusion caused by the change.

Rep. Han stressed that if a serious criminal subject to an arrest warrant were caught in a remote place such as Jeju, it would be practically impossible under the current system to decide on a warrant request within 48 hours. He argued that because prosecutors without investigative powers cannot directly investigate an arrested suspect, the procedure of transferring the case to the police would delay the investigation.

Pointing to practical difficulties, he said, "Take a serious criminal case, say someone is caught in Jeju. It happens often. So how is it handled now? When someone is subject to an arrest warrant, a prosecution investigator brings them in, and at the prosecution stage the warrant request must be decided within 48 hours of the arrest."

Vice Minister Lee Jin-soo explained that to prevent confusion when a suspect subject to a warrant is arrested, the principle is to transfer the case to an agency with investigative authority before the arrest. He said the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is preparing related standards and they will take effect within September.

Vice Minister Lee said, "We have to file the case and send it to the agency with investigative authority before the person is brought in." He stressed the mandatory and efficient transfer of cases to agencies with investigative authority.

Rep. Han Dong-hoon raised the problem that, when new evidence is discovered during detention, prosecutors cannot investigate it directly. He worried that prosecutors' authority to confirm facts would struggle to gain admissibility as evidence, and that inefficiency between police and prosecutors could arise when security investigations are requested.

He asked, "We can't do that anymore, right? So do we send it back to the police?" demanding a clear answer from the ministry on how new evidence related to a detained suspect would be handled.

This means prosecutors would directly review cases and strengthen investigative cooperation.

Vice Minister Lee said, "First, until now security investigation requests were only sent down to the police, but by using parallel security investigation requests we will strengthen investigative cooperation with police officers," presenting the changed approach. Rep. Han's side, however, criticized the administrative terminology as vague.

Drawing on his own experience as a prosecutor and as justice minister, he argued there was no precedent for such a committee and strongly criticized the ministry's response system to controversies over political investigations.

He countered, "In cases involving politicians, everyone has raised questions, and everyone has called it political investigation. But has it always been handled this way? The ministry has just handled everything on its own. Have you ever seen this even once? I don't remember it. I've been minister myself, and I've been a prosecutor for decades and never seen anything like this. Are there any precedents? There aren't, are there?" He thus raised questions about the appropriateness of establishing this committee.