A former prosecutor and current lawyer strongly criticized the morality of judges and prosecutors and their bad habits such as honoring former officials.

"There is no case in any country in the world, except for Korea's judges and prosecutors, where public officials wield great power while in office and easily sit on the money after retirement," said Kim Yong-won (56, Hanbyul Law Firm) at an academic seminar of the Advanced Investigation System Research Association at the National Police Agency on Saturday.

In his presentation on the topic of 'Implications of the Special Commission Agreement and Desirable Future Investigation Structure Reforms,' Mr. Kim pointed out that "the reason why case clients pay former high-ranking judges and prosecutors, such as former Supreme Court justices and prosecutors general, tens of millions of won or hundreds of millions of won per case and promise to pay even more in success fees is not to ask them to write good pleadings, but to meet with current (judges and prosecutors) or to make favors over the phone."<"There are former Supreme Court justices and prosecutors general who earn billions of won in a short period of time by practicing law mainly by phone with only a female staff and a driver in their offices," he said.

"The practice of kwan yew is not limited to the criminal behavior of former judges and prosecutors, but also the criminal behavior of former and current judges and prosecutors in collaboration," he said, adding that "there are fatal flaws in the morality of judges and prosecutors, but there is no self-correction effort."

"There is no room to assume that the morality of judges and prosecutors is better than that of the police," he said, "nor that their work is any more fair or just than that of the police."

Referring to the reality that both the investigative and prosecutorial powers are vested in the prosecutors, Kim said, "There have been numerous cases of human rights violations, arbitrary non-prosecution, and disruption of law and order due to the prosecutors' overzealous prosecution." "An independent body must be established to review and check the prosecutors' abuse of power," he said, adding that "the current Citizens' Committee for Prosecutors is only a bridesmaid of the prosecutors," and suggested a body like the Prosecution Review Board in Japan as an alternative.<"The reason behind the talk of establishing a special investigation bureau or a public official corruption investigation bureau is the public's distrust and dissatisfaction with prosecutors," Kim said, adding, "Establishing a special investigation bureau under the Supreme Prosecutors' Office will not change anything."

Kim, who graduated from Seoul National University, the 19th class of Sassi, and worked as a prosecutor at the Seoul, Busan, and Suwon prosecutors' offices, opened his own practice in 1992. In 1993, he wrote "Mercedes Benz Without Brakes," a book about the inner workings of the prosecutor's office.