Ahn Dae-hee, a former star prosecutor who made his name charging some of the most powerful and corrupt political figures, has drawn his sword against the very power he once headed: the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

Ahn, now the chief of the conservative Saenuri Party’s political reform committee, laid out plans to overhaul the prosecution last week, calling for the establishment of a special inspector and permanent independent counsel to fight high-profile corruption.

Appointed by the president, the special inspector would be empowered to investigate and charge relatives of the president, high-ranking government officials, judges and law-enforcement officials. Charges brought by the special inspector would be relayed to and further pursued by the permanent special prosecutors’ office.

The Saenuri Party’s proposal would usurp some of the powers previously relegated to the Central Investigation Department, which has been accused of politically-biased investigations.

“This is shocking,” Choi Jye-gyung, the current head of the department, said in reaction to the plan. “It is an attempt to weaken and ruin the prosecutor’s office.”

Choi added that Ahn’s proposal would amount to a second prosecutors’ office, which would be “wasteful and irrational.”

The Saenuri Party is not alone in its call for reforming the prosecutors’ office. Independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo and the main opposition Democratic United Party’s presidential candidate Moon Jae-in have also been vocal on the need to reform the prosecution. In a book he co-authored with law professor Kim In-hwe of Inha University, Moon wrote that the “prosecutors’ office is running the country” and that without reform, “the liberty and rights of the people cannot be protected.”

On Tuesday, Moon offered more specific details on how he would go about reforming the prosecution. Reducing the investigative powers of the Central Investigation Department, divvying up the right to investigate and indict between the police and the prosecutors, and extending civilian oversight of the office were some of the reforms offered by the former human rights lawyer.

“Until now, state power hasn’t adequately protected justice and human rights. It has been servile towards those in power and the rich and brutal toward the powerless common people,” said Moon.

Ahn Cheol-soo also took jabs at the prosecution in early October, stating that “there is no justice” in a country where “the prosecutors’ office exercises unchecked powers.” Ahn pledged to create a special agency dedicated to investigating high-ranking government officials that is outside the influence of the executive office.

The plans introduced by the three presidential candidates closely intertwine and bisect each another. All three candidates agree on the need to divide up the powers to investigate high-profile political crimes that were previously concentrated in the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

Establishing an independent agency that could investigate and indict government officials, including prosecutors and judges, outside the influence of the judicial branch of government, is another shared goal.

“Whether it is Rep. Park Geun-hye’s permanent special prosecutors’ office, or Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo’s special office to prosecute government officials, the essential point is to bring change to the exclusive power to indict enjoyed by the Prosecutors’ Office so as to curtail its exercise of unlimited power,” wrote Park Chan-un, a law professor at Hanyang University.

Bestowed with extensive judicial power to investigate and indict, the Central Investigation Department has investigated some of the most high-profile corruption cases, including those involving the sons of sitting presidents in the 1990s, and the illegal money transfers to Pyongyang prior to President Kim Dae-jung’s historical summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-il.

But the department has consistently come under fire for its selective prosecution standards and accusations of chummy relations with those in power. In particular, many legal experts have pointed out the lack of oversight, especially a counter-balancing agency that can scrutinize the prosecutors themselves.

In 2010, MBC’s investigative program “PD’s Notebook” reported allegations that several prosecutors had taken bribes over the years from a businessman. Among those implicated in the “sponsor prosecutor” scandal was Han Seung-cheol, the head of the internal inspection bureau. Han was later acquitted of the charges by the Seoul Central District Court.

Talk of reforming the Prosecutors’ Office is nothing new. Since the beginning of civilian rule in 1993, reform has figured in each president’s national agenda ― only to falter as allegations of corruption and nepotism tarnished the credibility of each would-be reformer. President Roh Moo-hyun went so far as to hold a nationally televised debate with prosecutors within two weeks of taking office in 2003, only to face allegations of cronyism by low-ranking prosecutors.

But the public outburst by the current head of the Central Investigation Department last week was rare in that it was explicitly directed against Ahn Dae-hee, the former head of the department, overlooking Moon Jae-in and Ahn cheol-soo, who laid out similar plans.

The pointed attack may be due to the high profile of Ahn as a star prosecutor. In 2003, as head of the Central Investigation Department, Ahn led the investigation into illegal campaign funds received by the Grand National Party, the predecessor of the current Saenuri Party, and found that the party raked in more than 10 billion won ($9.06 million) from large conglomerates.

The scandal came to be known as “truckload affair,” as the conservative party received the money in truckloads ― literally, by truck ― at parking lots. Ahn also uncovered illegal campaign funding received by the ruling liberal party, implicating the right-hand man of President Roh and his closest confidants, as well as 23 lawmakers and over 20 businessmen. The extensive investigation across the political aisle earned Ahn the nickname “the people’s prosecutor.”

South Korea ranked 43rd on the last Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International, a non-governmental organization based in Germany. Asian neighbors Japan and Singapore ranked 14th and 5th, respectively.

In Japan, the prosecutors’ office comes equipped with special investigation departments that can launch investigations into bribery and corruption crimes committed by government officials at the prosecutors’ own discretion. Many legal experts have cited the Special Investigation Department at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, which has pursued several notable high-profile corruption cases involving government officials, as a successful model for South Korea.

Singapore has an independent government agency dedicated entirely to the investigation of corruption in the public and private sectors. First established by the British colonial government in 1952, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau reports directly to the prime minister and is free of influence from other government agencies.

“Singapore can survive only if ministers and senior officers are incorruptible and efficient,” the nation’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, said in a speech in 1979, one of the many strong anti-corruption refrains heard in Singapore since the early 1960s.

“Only then will people, foreigners and Singaporeans, invest in Singapore; only then will Singaporeans work to improve themselves and their children through better education and further training, instead of hoping for windfalls through powerful friends and relatives or through greasing contacts in the right places.”

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)