Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate, proposed a reform plan for the judiciary and prosecutors as part of the campaign pledges. The core of the judiciary reform includes increasing the number of Supreme Court justices and establishing a Judicial Evaluation Committee. For prosecutors, the plan is to separate the investigation and prosecution functions and introduce a disciplinary dismissal system for prosecutors.
The Democratic Party of Korea announced on the 28th a policy pledge booklet for the 21st presidential election that included a reform plan for the judiciary and prosecutors. The policy pledges were broadly divided into three major visions: 'Recovery, Growth, Happiness,' with the reforms for prosecutors and the judiciary included in the 'Recovery' section.
Judiciary reform includes ▲ expanding the selection scale of judicial research officials and placing them in first-instance trial courts ▲ introducing the online trial system ▲ establishing a Judicial Evaluation Committee ▲ strengthening the criteria for excluding citizen participation in trials ▲ mandating the public broadcasting of hearings ▲ expanding the public disclosure range of lower court verdicts ▲ increasing the number of Supreme Court justices ▲ and expanding public hearings in the full bench.
The candidate formalized judiciary reform by including the increase of Supreme Court justices in the policy pledge booklet published that day. The current number of Supreme Court justices is 14. The proposed bills for increasing the number of justices include a '100-person increase' by lawmaker Jang Kyung-tae and a '30-person increase' by lawmakers Park Beom-kye and Kim Yong-min. Although the bill for a 100-person increase was withdrawn, the possibility of increasing the number of Supreme Court justices to 30 remains.
The Democratic Party of Korea has been indicating judiciary reform since the 1st, after the Supreme Court overturned Lee Jae-myung's conviction for violating the Public Election Act. During this process, a bill was proposed that would allow non-legal professionals to be appointed to the Supreme Court and increase the number of justices to 100.
The Democratic Party of Korea's election campaign committee instructed the withdrawal of the bills on 'appointment of non-legal professionals as Supreme Court justices' and 'increasing the number of Supreme Court justices to 100' as the controversy intensified. Lee Jae-myung also noted on the 24th, 'These are merely individual legislative proposals of individual lawmakers, and do not reflect the stance of the Democratic Party or myself at all,' adding that 'granting Supreme Court justice qualifications to non-legal professionals or non-lawyers should be approached cautiously.'
The reform plan for prosecutors includes ▲ separating investigation and prosecution ▲ introducing pre-trial hearings for search and seizure warrants ▲ elevating the investigation guidelines to legislation ▲ strengthening penalties for the crime of disclosing information about suspects ▲ enhancing punishment for evidence manipulation by investigative agencies and introducing special provisions for statutes of limitations ▲ actualizing judicial oversight over the abuse of prosecutorial powers ▲ selecting prosecutors only from among experienced legal professionals ▲ and introducing a disciplinary dismissal system for prosecutors.
The Democratic Party of Korea has argued for the abolition of the prosecution service and for the transfer of prosecutorial power to the Public Prosecution Office, while investigative powers are divided among the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, the National Investigation Headquarters, and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. Additionally, they proposed previously advocated systems such as the dismissal of prosecutors and the 'Permanent Exclusion Law for Statutes of Limitations on State Violence Crimes' as part of their pledges.