South Korea’s top prosecutor apologized Tuesday for the prosecution’s failure to abide by the law and protect human rights in investigating political cases in the past, vowing to make the law enforcement body politically neutral and transparent.

At the press briefing held at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, Prosecutor-General Moon Moo-il issued the apology for prosecutors’ past wrongdoings for the first time as an incumbent chief prosecutor and laid out plans to reform the prosecution.

“I apologize to the public for not fulfilling its duty to abide by the law and protect human rights in some of the political cases under the past authoritarian governments,” said Moon, who took office as the top prosecutor in early July. 

The prosecution has been criticized for aligning with military-backed governments for decades until the 1980s and falsely accusing pro-democracy activists and political dissenters, which led to wrongful convictions and retrials.

Moon referred to the Inhyeokdang case, or People’s Revolutionary Party case, as one of such cases.

In 1975, 25 anti-government protestors were indicted for attempting to overthrow the authoritarian Park Chung-hee government under North Korea’s instruction in violation of the anti-communist security law. Eight were sentenced to death and executed the next day.

The rest were acquitted in a 2007 retrial. A Seoul court said that they were coerced into making confessions by investigators‘ torture.

The apology comes in line with the top prosecutor’s determination to make the prosecution more transparent and politically neutral. The prosecution has been accused of being politically motivated and holding too much power with its exclusive authority to indict.

“For major cases attracting public attention, the prosecution will adopt a system in which external experts review the general process of investigation and indictments,” Moon said in reference to an independent body composed of outside experts.

The prosecution will also launch a prosecution reform committee consisting of external specialists and introduce a system in which corruption and irregularities in the prosecution are inspected by an external force.

The plans include an expansion of the range of investigation records open to the public and reduction of the size of units considered the most powerful within the organization, which have dealt with large-scale corruption cases and high-profile scandals involving top business groups and political bigwigs.

The prosecution reform is one of the major election promises by President Moon Jae-in.

Public distrust of the prosecution hit rock bottom in recent months in the wake of the corruption scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye, her confidante Choi Soon-sil, business tycoons and high-ranking government officials.

There has been criticism that the prosecution was lukewarm in investigating cases in connection with the scandal and being politicized in favor of the Park administration and major conglomerates.

Park and Choi, who are both arrested, are standing trial for bribery, coercion and abuse of power, among other charges, with ruling expected in October.

As for a possible additional probe into the corruption scandal, the top prosecutor maintained a reserved stance.

“The prosecution will decide whether to additionally investigate the case after reviewing investigation results, records and newly found evidence,” he said.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)