On September 26, a bill called the “most controversial judicial reform in 78 years” was officially struck in the congressional voting hall. 174 votes in favour, 1 vote against, 5 abstentions, a paper amendment, completely abolished South Korea's most powerful body - the Prosecutor's Office.This super organization, founded in 1948, once frightened successive presidents of South Korea, but now it has been dismantled by the new president Lee Jae-myung himself.
Just over a year ago, Li Zaiming was deeply involved in judicial investigation because of many cases, and his life was hanging by a thread. Just a few months later, he won the presidency and successfully cut off the power chain of the procuratorial system, the president's "confidant". Why is Li Zaiming so anxious to shoot? Is he for national reform or self-protection? Can this reform, which affects the fate of Korean politics, really end the "Cheongwadae Curse"?
In April, the South Korean parliamentary elections came to a close. The Democratic Party of the Communist Party took 175 seats and became an overwhelming majority. This allowed Lee to push forward all the reforms that had been difficult to ground before without resistance. He did not hesitate. At the beginning of his tenure, Lee submitted the amendment to the Government Organization Act to Congress, the core of which was the abolition of the Prosecutor’s Office and the restructuring of the judicial system.
The amendment proposes to divide the Prosecutor’s Office into two new agencies, which would have the right to investigate and prosecute separately: The "Public Prosecution Office" is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice and focuses on court litigation; The "Major Crime Investigation Office" is affiliated to the Ministry of Administrative Security, focusing on major cases such as corruption.
The power chain of the procuratorial system has been completely interrupted, which means that South Korea's judicial structure will shift from "one prosecutor dominates" to "multi-agency decentralization and checks and balances". On the day of the vote, the opposition National Power Party chose to withdraw collectively to protest that the amendment of the law undermined judicial independence, but instead, this made Lee Jae-myung "crush" the reform case in a more relaxed way.
For the past 78 years, the prosecutor's office has been called "the shadow presidential palace of Korean politics". In South Korea's power system, prosecutors not only have the right to prosecute, but can even lead the investigation, direct the police, apply for arrest and initiate liquidation. They are not only assistants to judges, but also judges of political opponents.
From all the struggle, to the Lutei, to Li Mingbo, Park Hyu, to Lu Wu, nine presidents, none of them survived, all were investigated by the prosecutor's office, and several were imprisoned. More impressive was the suicide of Lu Wu because of the pressure of the prosecutor's office, becoming the heaviest symbol in the Korean political history. The powers of the president are limited and the powers of the prosecutor are unlimited.”
Mr. Moon attempted to reduce prosecutor’s powers and set up a “Criminal Investigation Office for Senior Public Officials” to separate the powers of prosecutors, but his reform did not affect the fundamental status of the prosecutor’s office and eventually failed to resist it due to scandals and internal resistance.
Mr. Moon’s appointed Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Cao, was investigated by the prosecutor’s office over family issues, which led to the restoration of the government’s moral image and the end of the reform. Lee Jae-myung learned a lesson from it.He did not attempt a “progressive compromise,” but instead directly adopted the “dismantling of the system” method to dismantle the prosecutor’s system.
This reform is not without foreshadowing. In March 2025, the "Seongnam FC Sponsorship Gate" broke out, and then in April, the "Baekhyeondong Real Estate Case" surfaced. Lee Jae-myung was investigated by the prosecution one after another, and his political future was in jeopardy. Lee Jae-myung quickly fought back. He played the "political struggle of the prosecution" card in the mainstream media, portraying himself as a victim of persecution by the power system, thus winning a lot of sympathy and support.
Mainstream polls in South Korea show that his approval rate soared to 58% after the incident. In June 2025, Lee Jae-myung was successfully elected president. On his first day in office, he shouted the slogan "Ending procuratorial privilege cannot wait."During the months that followed, the pace of the reform continued, and it was finally officially adopted on September 26.
The Prosecutor's Office's 2,30,000 were reallocated: 1,10,000 were transferred to the Prosecutor's Office for full-time prosecution, 8,000 entered the Resolution Hall to investigate the major cases, and the remaining personnel were dispersed into the court system, and the structure of the original monopoly power was completely dispersed.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the heads of the new institutions are nominated by the President, approved by Congress, and must be regularly to the competent authorities.
As a result, the prosecutor's office, which was originally "above the government", could no longer pose a threat to the president at the institutional level. The outside world generally believes that Li in this game is both self-assurance and revenge.He had been pursued by the prosecutor’s office for five cases, and almost every time he had been dismissed from political life. He knew that even as president, as long as the prosecutor’s office still existed, he would have a day of liquidation.
So he chose to move quickly at the heights of power. This was not only a systemic reform, but also a political counterpart of personal fate. This reform also sparked great controversy within the Korean people and politics. Supporters called it a “historic knife”, believing it finally broke the situation of judicial imbalance and let South Korea say goodbye to the era of “procurator rule.”
Opponents criticized Lee Jae-myung for "changing the law for personal gain", fearing that the excessive concentration of executive power would lead to the judicial system becoming a "tool of the president". The Korea Bar Association has applied to the Constitutional Court for unconstitutional review, and the Central Prosecutor's Office in Seoul has also refused to hand over the investigation files, causing a wave of protests within the procuratorial system.
Even senior prosecutors resigned furiously, saying the system changed too quickly, not only architectural chaos, but the judicial vacuum of the connection period was more likely to lead to the failure to handle major cases. The real risk, coming from September 2026. Then, according to the amendment, the Prosecutor’s Office would be completely abolished.
During this period, if the new institution fails to operate smoothly, or major judicial mistakes occur, the opposition is bound to take the opportunity to attack, accusing the reform of "a disaster that destroys judicial independence". The post of "Attorney General" is still retained in the Korean Constitution. How to explain the conflict between its status and legal adjustment has also become a key battlefield in the future judicial game.
The boundary between prosecution and executive power, as well as the balance between judicial independence and political intervention, has been a problem for countries around the world, and South Korea’s restructuring, although it seems to be a “self-assurance reform”, also exposes the “Western balance of power” under East Asian culture.
South Korea has a strong “zero-sum game” political culture, the president has great power, and the regime changes almost inevitably liquidate its predecessor. Under such a system, no matter which agency holds the right to investigate or prosecute, it can evolve into a “political weapon”.
Whether the reform will really break the “magic of Qingdao” will depend on whether the new system will stabilize over the next two years, whether the public opinion will continue to support it, and whether Li will continue to control the pace. If he succeeds, he will become the first president in South Korea’s history to be unjudicially liquidated; if he fails, he may be awaited by a heavier political liquidation than any predecessor.
This is a big bet on the system, but also on the fate. This judicial reform, passed by 174:1 not only ended the era of eight decades of the Prosecutor’s Office in South Korea, but also Lee’s political game against liquidation risk. How the system works, whether the public opinion shakes, will determine whether his political fate can truly escape the “Magician of Qingdao.”
Source of information:
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