Gov't also seeks to weaken prosecution's investigation power



By Kim Bo-eun



The government announced a set of steps to reform the nation's spy agency and prosecution Sunday and delegate some of their investigation functions to the police in a move to prevent their abuse of power.



Under a reform plan to reorganize the nation's three investigation agencies, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) will no longer be allowed to investigate domestic espionage cases or collect information on politicians and citizens, Cheong Wa Dae said.



The police will instead take over anti-espionage cases from the spy agency, and some investigative roles from the prosecution.



This is in line with the Moon Jae-in administration's pledge to separate powerful government agencies from politics, disperse their power and institute checks and balances to prevent any abuse of power _ one of the President's main election pledges.



"Even after the era of democracy began, powerful government bodies have stood in opposition to the people," said Cho Kuk, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs.



He was referring to repeated cases of corruption and power abuse involving senior public officials.



"The Moon administration will put an end to this vicious cycle. It is the government's plan to restructure the agencies to uphold the first article of the Constitution which is that the Republic of Korea is a democratic republic."



The NIS has been accused of multiple wrongdoings _ including its heads paying bribes to the presidential office from its "special activities fund" under the Park Geun-hye administration, intervening in elections to support candidates of the then-ruling bloc and monitoring politicians, religious figures and celebrities who were critical of the government.



The spy agency's role will be limited to handling information on North Korea and other countries. It will no longer have the right to investigate espionage cases _ something which has long been abused by former conservative administrations to persecute anti-government figures.



Police will take over the function by establishing a new body within the force. The police force, composed of 100,000 officers, will be divided into state and local police, and officers in charge of investigations and handling administrative affairs, as a means to disperse its power.



An independent investigative body will be set up to probe corruption cases involving presidential aides, ranking government officials and prosecutors, and their families. Until the agency is established, police will lead investigations involving prosecutors.



The prosecution's investigative rights will be reduced to special cases involving finance and assisting police probes.



Up until now, the prosecution has had unlimited power, holding direct investigative rights, rights to supervise police investigations and the sole right to indict. Prosecutors have often abused these rights to gain favors from politicians and maintain their power, the presidential office said.



"If there were systems to check and balance the abuse of power by these organizations, there would not have been the corruption and influence-peddling cases that led to the ouster of former President Park," Cho said.



However, it is unclear whether the government will succeed in having the revisions to related laws getting passed at the National Assembly, given that the opposition parties have strongly opposed most of the policies proposed by the Moon government.



While pushing ahead with these reform measures, Cheong Wa Dae vowed to investigate alleged abuse of power committed by these institutions.



In the case of the police, a civil panel will conduct investigations into five cases, including the deaths of a farmer in an anti-government protest after being hit by a water cannon, and tenants protesting a redevelopment project in Seoul's Yongsan district.



Regarding the NIS, a taskforce has completed an investigation into the agency's intervention into the 2012 presidential election, in which it posted online comments in favor of the then-ruling party candidate Park to help her get elected.

