There were 174 votes in favor to 1 against, and this vote of the South Korean National Assembly rewritten 78 years of prosecutorial history. Can Li Ziming's dangerous move really break the "Qingwadai curse"? Where does his brilliance hide?

On September 26th, Yonhap News Agency reported that the plenary session of the Korean National Assembly passed the amendment to the Government Organization Law with 174 votes in favor, 1 vote against and 5 abstentions, formally abolishing the 78-year-old Korean Prosecutor's Office, and newly setting up the Public Prosecutor's Office under the Ministry of Justice and the Major Crime Investigation Office under the Ministry of Administrative Security, thus completely separating the public prosecution power and investigation power of the former Prosecutor's Office.

The amendment also involves adjustments such as the splitting of the Ministry of Planning and Finance into the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Finance and the addition of the Climate Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Environment. The Prosecutor's Office will be officially abolished in September 2026, and the largest opposition party, the National Power Party, voted by absence on the grounds that "reform undermines judicial independence".

Li Zaiming's means are very clever. Let's look at the timing first-it's too accurate. In March 2025, the "Seongnam FC Sponsorship Gate" scandal was revealed. The prosecution found out that the football club had received 23 billion won in illegal sponsorship, and Lee Jae-myung was in charge of the club's operations when he was the mayor of Seongnam. The prosecution immediately filed a case for "suspected benefit transfer".

Only a month later, the "Baixiandong Real Estate Corruption Case" surfaced again. Prosecutors said that Lee Zai-ming's team received 15 billion won in kickbacks. These two investigations were all led by the prosecution's special investigation headquarters, and the pace was stuck at a critical period of the battle for congressional seats. Anyone looked like targeted political actions.

Li's reaction on the Ming side was extremely fast, and in KBS and MBC these channels broadcast "the prosecutor's office became a political tool" special program, out of the 2017 Park Geun-hye case, the 2020 case of the prosecutor's "check out" the old account, linked his situation with the past political struggle.

As a result, Lee Jae-myung not only didn't be reviled by the Korean people, but his support rate soared to 58%, and he successfully ran for the president of South Korea. On the second day after his election, he shouted the slogan "Ending procuratorial privilege can't wait", and then quickly promoted the reform of the procuratorate while his support rate was still very high.

What is more critical is the design of the power division, which is simply tearing down the "power home" of the procuratorate's office. The original 23,000 people in the procuratorate's office were divided into pieces, and 11,000 people were transferred to the prosecutor's office for prosecution. However, the prosecution of major economic crimes still requires the approval of the Ministry of Justice.

8,000 people were transferred to the readjustment office to investigate major cases such as corruption and national security, and the investigation plan should submit reports to the Ministry of Administration and Security every month; The remaining 4,000 people were assigned to the Supreme Court and local branches, and the original power network was completely scattered.

Such a breakdown is exactly the pain of the prosecutor's office "re-check and appeal".The data of the Korean media show that from 2018 to 2024, the prosecutor's own case of appeal, the conviction rate is 92.7%, the police case of 71.3% higher than the conviction rate.

More interestingly, the rearrangement of the chief of the chamber is nominated by the president, appointed by the Congress, and the minister of justice is the direct leadership of the chief of the public prosecution, which is equivalent to putting both powers within the scope of the government, silently weakening the power that could threaten the president.

The vote of 174: 1 shows his skillful integration of political forces. The National Power Party opposes it, but it is collectively absent from voting-behind this is the internal split of the National Power Party. Yonhap News Agency described that all the members of the ruling party stood up and applauded during the vote, and the seats of the opposition party were empty. This "symbolic resistance" actually gave Lee Jae-myung more room for operation.

Now the Korean prosecutor's office has essentially become a piece of meat on Lee Jae-myung's chopping block. The decentralization of power puts the power of the prosecutor's office under the power of the government, so it's hard to say whether the previous accusations made by the prosecutor's office against Lee Jae-myung can be counted.

However, there are actually voices opposing this in South Korea. For example, the Korean Bar Association accused the Lee Jae-ming government of violating the Constitution and submitted an application for unconstitutional review to the Constitutional Court. The South Korean Prosecutors 'Association organized prosecutors to protest in Seoul, and the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office also refused to hand in investigation files.

Therefore, the key to whether this reform can be achieved depends on the transition before the abolition of the Procuratorate in September 2026: how the Constitutional Court will decide, whether the prosecutors will cooperate, and whether the new institution can operate. Whatever the chain is broken, all previous efforts may be wasted. But from the 174:1 vote to poll support, Li Zai-ming does know better about how to manage power than his predecessor.

Whether the "Qingwadai Spell" will be completely broken is not yet sure. But what is certain is that the president, who was still troubled by investigations in the first half of the year, has now become the person who changes judicial history. The brilliance of this move is that he tied his destiny to institutional change and became the biggest beneficiary of breaking the curse.