Korean prosecutors still hold cases meant for the new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency

The only fixed date in the handover belongs to the prosecutors. The Public Prosecution Agency may keep investigating for up to 90 days after the launch in cases that cannot move at once because of their nature, or whose statute of limitations is about to run out ^[5]. Counted from Oct 2 ^[1], that window closes on or around Dec 31 ^[1].

The new agency's own timetable runs longer. Bidding to supervise construction, mechanical and firefighting work at its headquarters and Seoul office has only just started ^[6]. The supervising firm will be chosen on Oct 8 ^[6] for a 90-day term that runs into early next year ^[7]. If that term starts on selection day, it ends around Jan 6 ^[2], six days after the prosecutors' exception lapses ^[3]. More than a dozen other construction contracts have only just begun and are expected to run for more than a month ^[8].

The exception is drafted around the case file. It covers files that cannot move because of what they are and files close to their limitation date ^[5]. The stall, according to legal sources quoted by Seoul Economic Daily, comes from system problems at the receiving agency ^[4], where much of the KICS criminal justice network will be unavailable for some time ^[3]. Prosecutors have already sorted which cases should go ^[4]. Whether a system fault at the other end counts as part of a case's nature is now a judgement they make file by file.

If KICS access returns within weeks, the sorted cases move in October or November and the stall costs a few weeks. A broad reading of the exception would keep investigations moving, but inside the office that is meant to be giving them up. Limited access into December is the harder outcome: files cross over on paper, or sit until Dec 31 forces a decision ^[1].

I think the delay appears first in the agency's opening case, before it reaches the transferred files. Senior government officials had told the launch team the agency should be seen carrying out a forced investigation on opening day, but shortfalls in staff and facilities and the empty top post are expected to push that back ^[9]. Its staff spent the holiday drafting task assignments and manuals for each bureau and division ^[2].

An agency official argued the opposite. "The deputy chief is serving as acting head, and the regional offices are largely staffed, so investigations are possible even before the commissioner takes office," the official said ^[10]. A forced investigation before a commissioner is named, or a completed handover in October, would show the official was right.

The report does not say which cases are in the queue or whether any concern companies. For anyone whose file is in it, the open question until the end of December is which office calls them in. Investigators could end up questioning suspects while construction and supervision work is still under way ^[8].