President Lee Jae-myung on the 21st again pushed back against criticism of the heads of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Office attending Cabinet meetings. His position is that because the two bodies belong to the executive branch, sharing the direction of state affairs with them follows naturally from the Constitution and the Government Organization Act. The opposition People Power Party and parts of the legal community counter that having agency heads who must investigate abuses of power meet regularly with the president and Cabinet ministers can in itself undermine the independence of investigations.
In a post on X titled "I Asked Gemini," Lee wrote that "the argument that the heads of the Public Prosecution Office and the Major Crimes Investigation Agency cannot sit in on Cabinet meetings denies Article 11 of the Government Organization Act and is an unconstitutional stretch." He added that "demanding their exclusion from Cabinet meetings is sophistry that directly denies the president's authority to supervise the administration and the structure of government command laid out in the Constitution and the Government Organization Act."
Citing the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Government Organization Act one by one, Lee said the claim that "the president may direct and supervise them but must not have them attend the Cabinet meeting, an official body, is a clear contradiction." He went on: "If they head agencies subject to the president's direction and supervision, then formally sitting in on Cabinet meetings — the highest policy deliberation body under the Constitution — to coordinate state affairs and discuss their own duties transparently is consistent with constitutional accountability." Blocking that, he said, "would neutralize the president's supervisory authority guaranteed by law and amount to nothing more than a dangerous idea of leaving investigative and prosecutorial bodies as a sanctuary beyond accountability, outside democratic control."
On the 6th, Jeon Jong-min, acting head of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency, Lee Jung-hyun, acting head of the Public Prosecution Office, and Kim Jong-cheol, acting commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, sat in on the Cabinet meeting together. On the 20th, Kim Ji-yong, the first head of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency, attended a Cabinet meeting presided over by the president for the first time since taking office. When questions were raised about political neutrality, Lee said at the Cabinet meeting on the 13th that he found the criticism "hard to agree with," stressing that the arrangement "follows naturally from the Government Organization Act and the Constitution."
At the Cabinet meeting on the 20th, Lee also instructed Kim to investigate serious crimes such as corruption involving those in power and securities and financial crimes "without taking sides and without any sanctuary whatsoever." Kim said he would "establish the Major Crimes Investigation Agency successfully, complete prosecution reform and do his utmost to protect the rights and interests of the public." The remarks were read as a call to enforce the law strictly and without political bias while emphasizing the role of the newly launched investigative body.
Meanwhile, not only the conservative opposition but also People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a progressive civic group, recently urged in a commentary that the heads of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Office refrain from attending Cabinet meetings on a regular basis. Even without instructions on specific cases, the group said, the fact that the president and Cabinet ministers could later become targets of investigation or prosecution could place a political burden on the agency heads. The People Power Party has also sharpened its criticism, saying the independence and neutrality of investigative agencies could be shaken.
In a separate social media post the same day, Lee wrote that "all agency heads — the head of the Korea Forest Service, the commissioner of the National Fire Agency, the commissioner of the Korea Coast Guard — attend and take part in the discussions," adding that "correcting the mistaken notion and practice of treating investigative agencies as a special case is also part of restoring what has been abnormal to normal." He said that "the Major Crimes Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Office are just one more agency whose head is subject to the direction of the president, the prime minister and ministers," and added: "Just as I do not give ministers instructions on specific permits and licenses, I will not direct investigations into specific cases, so there is no need to worry."