Interior ministry steps up Major Crimes Investigation Agency preparations

The interior ministry said Tuesday it had stepped up preparations for the Major Crimes Investigation Agency's Oct. 2 launch, beginning work on rules, staffing and office space.

The launch preparation team will publish draft organizational and investigator-appointment regulations for public comment Aug. 5-10. It will hold recruitment briefings at 18 local prosecutors' offices from Aug. 5-12, accept applications from Aug. 7-20 and select recruits by late September.

Under the proposed framework, the agency will investigate corruption, economic offenses and drug crimes. The draft rules would create internal and external oversight bodies for investigative powers, including inspector and human-rights offices, to prevent abuses and rights violations.

"The agency's launch is an important starting point for prosecutorial reform that separates investigations from prosecutions under the prosecutors' office system," Kim Min-jae, head of the interior ministry's agency launch preparation team, said. "We will carefully design its organization and hiring rules so that it opens as a professional investigative agency trusted by the public and fully carries out its duty to protect people's rights."

The agency is planned to have 2,874 staff, including 2,567 investigators, at a headquarters and six regional offices in Seoul, Suwon, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan and Gwangju. It is securing premises separate from prosecutors' offices: a lease covers the headquarters and Seoul office in Jung-gu, Seoul, while regional office agreements remain under negotiation. No public building was immediately available for occupancy, and private buildings were selected with space, accessibility and security considered.

At launch, the agency will use an adapted police criminal-justice information system for core operations and case management. A standalone system would take more than three years to develop.