South Korea's new Prosecution Service is set to begin operations on October 2 with about 1,900 prosecutors, roughly 80 to 85 percent of the current statutory prosecutor headcount, under organizational rules approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday.
The Justice Ministry said the service will open below the existing legal ceiling and that prosecutor numbers will later be reduced through legislation after the government analyzes workloads under the new criminal-justice system. The current statutory prosecutor quota is above 2,200, while the initial staffing plan deliberately leaves part of that capacity unfilled.
A smaller structure from day one
The reorganization also affects investigative staff. Korean reporting says the new structure sharply reduces the number of investigators directly assigned to the Prosecution Service, with some personnel moving into a new criminal-justice job classification. That makes the launch more than a change of name: it changes how prosecutors and support staff are distributed as the former prosecution system is replaced.
The central operational question is whether the reduced staffing level can absorb existing caseloads while institutions adjust to new divisions of responsibility. The government says it will use workload analysis and organizational diagnostics after launch before pursuing a formal reduction in the statutory number of prosecutors.
October 2 is therefore the first operational test. Staffing levels at launch, case handling and subsequent legislation will show whether the new service settles into a smaller permanent structure or whether transitional workload pressures force adjustments.