The Seoul Central District Prosecution Office is spreading industrial accident cases across several divisions and strengthening division-level responses to major public safety disasters and crimes causing widespread harm to ordinary citizens. In line with the separation of investigation and prosecution, it is also reorganizing its cooperation framework with the Major Crimes Investigation Agency by field and reassigning prosecutors from existing investigative divisions to trial divisions to bolster courtroom capacity.
The office said on the 16th that it drew up the reorganization plan and has been operating under it since the 2nd. The changes focus on realigning the response system for serious crimes in line with shifts in the criminal justice system and the reorganization of the office's structure, while strengthening public safety functions as well as trial and litigation work.
Industrial accident cases, previously handled by a single division, have been moved to a joint response model. Serious industrial accident cases that had been handled solely by the third public investigation division are now shared by the first and second public and criminal divisions. The move is intended to speed up case handling and allow a quicker response to safety accidents. The name of the dedicated remit was also changed from "serious industrial accidents" to "industrial safety" to emphasize safety. The channel for cooperation with the labor office, which holds special judicial police powers, has been consolidated into the second public and criminal division.
With the first through third public investigation divisions scaled back into the first and second public and criminal divisions, the allocation of work on national security, election and labor cases was also adjusted. Given that the statute of limitations on cases from the June 3 local elections expires on Dec. 3, however, the first public and criminal division will for the time being handle national security, labor and group cases, while the second division takes on election and political funding cases. Industrial safety cases will be divided between the two.
For major public safety disasters and crimes causing widespread harm to ordinary citizens, responsibility has been elevated from individually designated prosecutors to designated divisions. The second criminal division will cover major public safety disasters along with food and medical cases, and the fifth criminal division will cover them along with environmental, transportation and railway crimes. The eighth criminal division, which handles construction and real estate cases, has also been given an explicit remit for major public safety disasters. The fourth criminal division will handle livelihood economy cases and crimes causing widespread harm to ordinary citizens. The aim is to strengthen public safety and livelihood protection through cooperation within and between divisions.
The work of the first through sixth serious crime indictment divisions was also spelled out by area of expertise. The first division will handle public office and corruption cases, the second corporate and economic cases, the third narcotics and violent crime, the fourth fair trade, the fifth foreign affairs and information technology, and the sixth tax cases. They will cooperate by field with the Seoul Metropolitan Major Crimes Investigation Agency's anti-corruption, economic crime, narcotics, antitrust and advanced investigation bureaus, handling each stage from assessing allegations to warrants, requests for supplementary investigation and maintaining prosecutions.
The office is also moving to strengthen trial and litigation functions. Prosecutors from existing investigative divisions have been reassigned to trial divisions, and the number of trial prosecutors with experience in criminal, public, international and information technology work has been increased. The number of prosecutors actually working in divisions tied to serious crime indictments fell to 28 from 37, a drop of nine, or 24.3%.
The office said it adjusted staffing so that it could carry out its prosecution functions fully even with a shortage of prosecutors caused by secondments to special counsel teams and transfers to the Major Crimes Investigation Agency. A team dedicated to public interest representation, previously housed in the planning office, was moved to the third trial and litigation division. The team handles public interest litigation such as the dissolution of shell corporations and petitions to terminate parental rights or to begin limited guardianship.
The Seoul office said it would "cooperate closely with related agencies so that there are no gaps in the national response to crime, and faithfully protect the rights and interests of the public on the basis of the expertise we have built up."