South Korea parliament passes bill stripping prosecutor's investigative power

South Korea's parliament passed a sweeping legal reform bill on Friday that will strip prosecutors of investigative powers, a move that the government argues will curb the risk of political abuse of one of the country's most powerful state bodies.



The legislation will create a new agency that will exclusively handle indictments and prosecution and spin off the investigative function to a separate agency.

The landmark vote formalises the separation of powers that President Lee Jae Myung and his liberal Democratic Party say is needed to prevent political abuse of unchecked prosecutorial power.



The push by liberals to break up the prosecution service gained momentum after Yoon Suk Yeol, its former head, was accused by political rivals of using the institution to gain the presidency and persecute opponents.



The conservative Yoon's short-lived martial law declaration in December 2024 became, for many reform advocates, the final argument for dismantling the institution that made him.



The bill's passage caps a decades-long fight in South Korean politics to break up the prosecution service.



Reform calls mounted as prosecutors were accused of targeting political enemies while protecting insiders, with liberals arguing that such concentrated power invited abuse and weakened democratic accountability.