The presidential office pushed back on the Rebuilding Korea Party after the party objected to President Lee Jae-myung's comments on the 5th about disputes within the ruling bloc's support base over prosecution reform, including the power to conduct supplementary investigations.
In a press notice from the spokesperson's office that night, the presidential office said, "Cho Kuk, head of the party's Innovation Policy Institute, appeared on the YouTube channel 'Jang Yun-sun's Convenience Store' on Aug. 29 last year and stated on his own, with conditions attached, that his position was that supplementary investigations should be recognized." The office also noted, "In the case of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency, the party previously called for it to be placed under the Ministry of Justice but later changed its official position to place it under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety."
The office said, "The Rebuilding Korea Party itself has acknowledged that it has changed the substantive content of its prosecution reform proposals according to circumstances and conditions," adding that "the detailed design of prosecution reform has been adjusted in line with the course of discussions and changing circumstances."
The presidential office said, "The president's post on X, formerly Twitter, was about how the broad intent and direction of prosecution reform aimed at an irreversible transformation of the prosecution service, that this has been achieved, and that this intent has not changed since the presidential campaign pledge." It added, "Rather than clinging to minor differences over trivial points in prosecution reform, we ask that you join the process of completing, with a high degree of thoroughness, the reform that has already proceeded irreversibly."
Earlier, in his post on X, the president wrote, "The Rebuilding Korea Party, and indeed most advocates of prosecution reform, called for placing a Major Crimes Investigation Agency in charge of investigations and a Public Prosecution Agency in charge of indictments within the Ministry of Justice," along with "the argument that the Public Prosecution Agency should be given the power to conduct supplementary investigations."
In response, Park Byung-eon, senior spokesperson for the Rebuilding Korea Party, said in a press notice that the party had introduced a bill in 2024 to place the Public Prosecution Agency and the Major Crimes Investigation Agency under the Ministry of Justice, but later went through procedures to change its official position so that the Major Crimes Investigation Agency would fall under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. He added that the party had called for the right to request supplementary investigations, not the power to conduct them.
The notice subsequently issued by the presidential office is seen as citing Cho's past remarks to correct parts of the factual record and as stressing that the key issue lies in raising the substantive quality of the reform rather than in whether specific reform details have changed.
Cho responded in a Facebook post on the 6th, saying, "When we set the record straight on what the Rebuilding Korea Party's official position was, the presidential office issued a late-night rebuttal citing Cho Kuk's individual position." Quoting his own past remarks again, he explained, "My personal position was that the prosecution's power to conduct supplementary investigations could be recognized as an exception only in 'judicial emergencies,' such as when the statute of limitations is imminent or when judicial police officers fail to comply with a request for supplementary investigation three or more times without justifiable reason. But after the party's official position was set as full abolition, I have maintained the position that the prosecution's right to request supplementary investigations should accordingly be further strengthened and systematized."
