[THE INVESTOR] South Korea‘s two major opposition parties have jointly proposed a bill on setting up a new state agency that would specialize in investigating corruption cases involving senior government officials.

While the probe targets include former presidents, incumbent prime ministers, lawmakers, ministers and judges, the bill on launching an independent entity has come after a series of scandals involving incumbent and former prosecutors.

As the Justice Ministry and prosecutors’ office had not been active in probing their own officials until prosecutor-implicated incidents brought severe public criticism of the past few decades, liberal parties have continued to stress the necessity of a fresh independent agency to tackle prosecutors’ corruption or abuses of authority.

Unfortunately, the outlook on the bill’s passage through the National Assembly is not bright. As in past years, many ruling party lawmakers are again downplaying the need for the new agency. Opponents include lawmakers of the Saenuri Party who previously served as prosecutors.

Whenever allegations involving incumbent prosecutors have come into the spotlight, the prosecution has vowed to conduct thorough internal probes and promised internal reforms in front of the camera.

But the results have frustrated the public, as the de facto exclusive investigative agency’s disciplinary measures against errant prosecutors have often been tepid. Further, most of the rule-breaking prosecutors work for private law firms or open legal offices after being discharged from the prosecution.

In the wake of a high-ranking prosecutor’s suspect stock gains worth 12 billion won ($11 million), the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office unveiled a plan to set up a committee tasked with enhancing codes of conduct and revamping the prosecution’s top-down system.

However, the public does not seem to agree that the self-reform efforts have worked in terms of efficacy and credibility.

A recent poll shows that the prosecution and prosecutor-turned-lawmakers have little justification for rejecting the creation of the special entity. In a Realmeter poll conducted in late July, 69.1 percent of respondents said they supported the legislative move for a special investigative agency while 16.4 percent opposed it.

In South Korea, the prosecution is said to have secured its vested rights for decades in terms of its exclusive authority for indictment and overall control of police investigations.

The National Police Agency has yet to be given the independent authority to investigate suspects outside the prosecution’s control -- or corrupt prosecutors.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)