[2027 Budget Proposal] 472.4 Billion Won for SCIA Launch... Legal Affairs and Major Investigation Budget Up 24% Next Year

SCIA Allocated 472.4 Billion Won,
Prosecution Agency Receives 1.0854 Trillion Won


Legal Affairs and Major Investigation Budget Up 24.2% Year-on-Year


Expanded National Compensation and Victim Support

With the launch of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA) and the Prosecution Agency scheduled for October, next year’s budget for legal affairs and major criminal investigations will increase by over 24% compared to this year. The budget allocated for the SCIA is 472.4 billion won, while more than 1 trillion won is designated for the Prosecution Agency.

An appointment briefing for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Serious Crime Investigation Agency was held at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo shows the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul on that day. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

According to the government’s 2027 budget proposal announced on September 1, the budget for the legal affairs and major criminal investigation sector stands at 6.1268 trillion won, an increase of 1.1919 trillion won (24.2%) from this year’s 4.9349 trillion won. With the abolition of the Prosecutors’ Office, the SCIA, which will be in charge of criminal investigations, has been allocated 472.4 billion won, and the Prosecution Agency, responsible for indictment and maintaining prosecutions, 1.0854 trillion won.

The SCIA will be established as a headquarters plus six regional branches — in Seoul, Suwon, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, and Gwangju — with a total staff of 2,874. This includes 2,567 investigators and 307 general administrative personnel, with 1,089 assigned exclusively to the Seoul office. Notably, the Anti-Monopoly Investigation Bureau at the Seoul SCIA branch will have 122 staff, more than seven times the 17 investigators currently in the Fair Trade Investigation Division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. The Financial Investigation Bureau will also comprise about 150 employees, over three times the combined 45 prosecutors and investigators at the Financial Investigations 1st and 2nd Divisions and two joint investigation units at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.

SCIA will be tasked with seven major categories of crime, divided by type: corruption, economic crime, defense procurement, narcotics, national protection, cybercrime, and judicial distortion offenses. In addition, there will be five joint investigative teams dedicated to voice phishing, finance, virtual assets, narcotics, and national finance crimes. In the special recruitment for former prosecutors’ office personnel held last month, 2,375 applicants registered, accounting for 82.6% of all available positions.

The budget for crime victim protection will also be expanded. National compensation for swift redress of victims regarding historical incidents and similar cases will be raised from 144.8 billion won to 840 billion won. The budget for court-appointed counsel for victims will increase from 12.1 billion won to 13.3 billion won, while crime victim compensation will be boosted from 11.8 billion won to 14.2 billion won. Additionally, 26 billion won will be invested to establish 16 new juvenile protection agencies dedicated to preventing juvenile recidivism and supporting social reintegration.

The budget for courts and the Constitutional Court will rise from 2.6701 trillion won to 2.8186 trillion won. Of this, 10 billion won will be earmarked for remodeling the Supreme Court, and 25.1 billion won is included for establishing six new courts in total, including two rehabilitation courts and two maritime and international commercial courts.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.