Commissioner Gen. Min Gap-ryong of Korea National Police Agency, left, visits Prosecutor Gen. Moon Moo-il of Supreme Prosecutor’s Office to discuss cooperation between the two powerful law enforcement institutions in the country. (Photos:Supreme Prosecutor’s Office)

Commissioner General Min Gap-ryong of Korea National Police Agency called on Prosecutor General Moon Moo-il of Supreme Prosecutor’s Office at his office on Aug. 10 and met for about an hour to discuss the matters related to investigative rights that the two powerful investigative offices share.

Prosecutor General Moon visited the National Police Agency in July last year and Commission Gen. Min reciprocated the Prosecutor Gen.’s visit this year.

The two held undisclosed meetings to take up key issues facing the two vital law enforcement agencies in the country including the share of the investigative rights and cooperation between them to improve the efficiency of the control of the criminal investigative activities

Prosecutor Gen. Moon meeting the reporters as he was about to send off the commissioner gen. at the entrance of the Supreme Prosecutor Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, he said they held very useful discussions for boosting the cooperation between the two law enforcement organizations by removing any problems they might have.

The police commissioner also said he came to the Prosecutor’s Office to learn a lesson or two from the prosecutor general on closer cooperation between the two law enforcement organizations.

Moon said he will see the cooperation between the two organizations get steadfast and closer. As he asked if there were talks on the possible rearrangement of the investigative rights between the two organizations, Commissioner Gen. Min said the Prosecutor Gen. took control of his outfit before he did and so he gave him the words for encouragement for taking control of police forces.

With the two highest law enforcement officials exchanging visits each other, hope ran high that the they would be frequent exchanges between them with their relationship becoming horizontal. But the expectations have yet to become reality with the bickering between them over the investigative rights still going on as before, the reports said.

The Prosecution Service established the National Digital and Forensic Center in 2008 in a bid to fight increasingly sophisticated and intelligent crimes. It also diversified the scientific investigation system by integrating all scientific investigation divisions, increasing specialized staff, expanding facilities and introducing advanced investigation equipment.

The NDFC is making strenuous efforts to discover substantial truth with rapid and precise analysis on evidence from various sources, research on developing scientific investigation and analysis techniques as well as digital evidence collection and analysis techniques.

Furthermore, it has built cooperative relations with 19 local and international agencies and institutes across the world and presented state-of-the-art analysis techniques to the international Association for Identification and International Association of Forensic Sciences.

This is how we set international standards for scientific investigation as a global leader. Kwon Soon-chul, Chief of the International Cooperation Center, Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO), announced on Nov. 8 that the SPO has decided to return approximately 700 million Won of criminal proceeds to 1,800 victims.

The recovered proceeds were acquired by selling property forfeited in California, which was purchased with money obtained through a massive pyramid fraud scheme masterminded by a T. Kwak. It is the first time that the Korean government is distributing criminal proceeds to victims, whether recovered in Korea or overseas. The proceeds will be returned to the victims of Kwak’s pyramid fraud scheme.

The flag for the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, and the flag for the Korea National Police Agency are shown in the photos.