President Lee Jae-myung declares an end to the era of politically weaponized prosecution

President Lee Jae-myung said at the Blue House senior secretaries' meeting on October 1, 2026, that with the launch the following day of the Indictment Review Office (the body that decides whether to indict in place of prosecutors) and the Major Crimes Investigation Agency (which succeeds the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials to investigate misconduct by senior officials), the era in which prosecutors monopolized investigation and indictment will come to an end and a new criminal justice system will begin. President Lee stated, "We will steadfastly complete the historic mission of irreversible prosecutorial reform."

The president emphasized, "With the reallocation of authority, police reform will become a major task of our government going forward. The police's responsibility has never been greater, and as their powers expand, external oversight and internal self-policing must be carried out rigorously." He added, "Strong and substantive reform measures are needed to the point that the case concealment or investigative corruption that citizens worry about becomes utterly unthinkable."

Regarding the National Intelligence Resource Management Institute fire, which occurred a year ago, he stressed that core information systems must be duplicated so operations can continue even if one system goes down, and that safety contingency measures must be established to prevent such a backward-facing disaster from recurring.