Assembly committee passes bill aimed at disbanding prosecution

Rep. Choo Mi-ae, left, chief of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, speaks during a committee session at the National Assembly, Wednesday. Yonhap

The National Assembly's judiciary committee approved a bill to reorganize the structure of government, Wednesday, including disbanding the prosecution service and restructuring the finance and environment ministries.

The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, led by the ruling Democratic Party, passed the bill despite objections from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) over the prosecution reform.

With Wednesday's passage, the bill is now expected to be put up for a full vote at the National Assembly's plenary session on Thursday.

The bill calls for reforming the prosecution by scrapping its headquarters and creating two new agencies to separately take on its indictment and investigative powers.

The so-called serious crimes investigation agency will be installed under the interior ministry, while the indictment office will be established under the justice ministry.

The move comes after longstanding criticism that the prosecution has abused its exclusive powers by carrying out politically motivated investigations.

Noh Man-seok, acting chief of the prosecution service, expressed opposition to the proposed disbanding, warning it could become a "flaw" in the push for prosecution reform.

"Abolishing the prosecution, which is prescribed in the Constitution, could instead become a flaw in achieving successful prosecution reform," he said in a statement.

The bill also seeks to divide the finance ministry into two bodies — one for budget management and the other for economic and policy oversight. The office on budget management would be installed under the prime minister's office.

Under the bill, the industry ministry will also transfer its energy policy tasks to the environment ministry, which will be renamed the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.