Alongside the Liberty Korea Party, senior prosecutors have also expressed skepticism toward the independent agency. It is the core part of the prosecution-reform scheme of the Moon government, under which impropriety-ridden prosecutors could be charged or placed as suspects by a new investigative agency operating outside the prosecution structure.

Over the past few decades, the prosecution has frequently faced public criticism for abusing its investigatory authority and monopoly on indictments with most people but taking a lukewarm approach toward its own malfeasance. Prosecutors have usually dismissed the speculations.

In the meantime, the Moon administration has faced a barrier in its prosecution reform, as new Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who was appointed to the post on Sept. 9, has been severely criticized by the right-wing Liberty Korea Party over allegations surrounding him and his family since he was a nominee status in early August.

The Cho Kuk scandal involves his family’s allegedly improper investment in private equity funds and his daughter’s dubious admission to a university in Seoul and medical-major graduate school in Busan.

Cho expressed his resolve to establish the independent investigation unit while he was serving as the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs for two years from 2017 to 2019.

Since at least early September, the prosecution has been conducting a de facto full-fledged investigation into the allegations surrounding the justice minister.

Public opinion is broadly split: Opponents of Cho are demanding he steps down from the post irrespective of the prosecution reform, while proponents claim that the prosecution is struggling to secure its vested rights by hampering the launch of the independent agency.

Though polls show more people oppose Cho’s appointment as minister than support it, a recent survey result showed that the majority of people still support the prosecution reform itself.

According to a poll by broadcaster KBS, which was released on Sept. 13, 57.7 percent of the 1,000 people responded that they supported Cho’s inaugural remarks, in which the new minister raised the necessity of systematically controlling the strong prosecution power via overhaul. As a counterpart, 37 percent of those surveyed said they were not in support of his arguments.
 

By region, those in Gwangju-Jeolla provinces topped the list with 75.9 percent in the advocate percentage for a reform, followed by Gyeonggi Province-Incheon at 60.9 percent, Jeju-Gangwon provinces at the same 60.9 percent, Seoul at 56.4 percent and Sejong-Daejeon-Chungcheong provinces at 55.2 percent.

A noteworthy point is that the number of proponents also outnumbered opponents in the home turf of the Liberty Korea Party -- 49.8 percent (pros) vs. 42.6 percent (cons) in Daegu-North Gyeongsang Province and 47.5 percent vs. 45.2 percent in Busan-Ulsan-South Gyeongsang Province.

This indicates that the majority of residents in any of the 17 major cities and provinces across the nation are still pinning hopes on the reform drive.

By generation, advocates took up more than 50 percent in all age groups between those in their 20s and 50s, respectively, while opponents exceeded advocates among those in their 60s or above, the KBS poll showed.

An online commenter said that revamping of the prosecution power should continue to be pushed forward at the National Assembly regardless of whoever the justice minister taking office. “And Cho or his family should be held accoutable for crimes, if any. The two are the diffrent propositions, and the fate of the reform bill could not be determined by a justice minister or prosecutor general.”

Apart from setting up the independent unit, the overhaul scheme includes scaling back the prosecution’s monopolistic authority of controlling the overall criminal probes and sharing a certain proportion of it with the police. On the other hand, a control authority held by the police is arousing concerns over possibly reckless probes into ordinary citizens.

Meanwhile, a poll by SBS and Kantar Korea, which was released on Sept. 14, the percentage of people, who predicted a successful prosecution reform under Minister Cho Kuk, stayed at 39.5 percent. In contrast, 55.8 percent, forecast a reform failure under the situation.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)