The prosecutor's interview with suspects in South Korea

South Korean criminal trials heavily depend on the investigation dossier written by prosecutor. The judges do no more than confirm evidence in the prosecutor's interview documents. This leads to a conviction rate exceeding 99 per cent, which is one of the highest in the world. The study aims to explore the reliability of such prosecutorial interview documents and the problems caused by criminal trials depending on them. This is based on a semi-structured interview of 20 legal professionals. Prosecutors' written interview records cannot help to regulate the risk of abuse as they provide the court with quite limited and skewed information. The criminal justice system should amend the evidentiary impact of the prosecutorial interview records. Instead, it should establish a number of appropriate safeguards to protect suspects against false confessions.