ED Curbing abuse of power
Checks and balances the key to reforming investigation agencies
A blueprint to reform Korea’s spy agency, police and prosecution aims to prevent abuse of power and to better serve the people and the nation. To this end, the government plans to ensure checks and balances among the three agencies.
The roadmap, announced by senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Cho Kuk, Sunday, is one of President Moon Jae-in’s campaign pledges to prevent abuse of power by the state intelligence agency and the two law enforcement bodies.
We welcome the reform and call on the Moon administration to implement it faithfully so the three agencies can be reborn as the guardians of human rights and protectors of national security and the safety of the people.
Most notable is a plan to make the National Intelligence Service (NIS) hand its investigative power for anti-espionage cases to the police. If this plan is turned into action, the NIS will focus on gathering intelligence on North Korea and foreign issues.
In fact, the spy agency has long been blamed for abusing and misusing its investigative power in order to intervene in politics and to crack down on dissidents. Now the agency will have to shed its image of serving as a “maiden” of the power elite.
A recent case of abuse took place in the 2012 presidential election, in which impeached President Park Geun-hye was elected. Three former NIS chiefs under Park and her conservative predecessor Lee Myung-bak were arrested on charges of meddling in elections or appropriating the NIS budget to offer bribes to the presidential office.
Handing the NIS’s investigative authority to the police might allow the law enforcement agency to have greater power, another source of concern for abuse. In this regard, the government plans to create an espionage investigation bureau within the National Police Agency to enhance its integrity and accountability.
The Moon administration also plans to limit the prosecution’s power to prevent it from abusing its authority and forming corrupt ties with the inner circles of political power. For this, the government will set up an independent investigative body to probe corruption cases involving politicians and high-ranking civil servants as well as prosecutors.
The success of the prosecution reform will depend on how to restrict its monopoly of power to press charges against criminal suspects and share its investigation authority with police. This is easier said than done. But we hope the government will succeed in reforming the three agencies. This reform is an urgent task to restore democracy and build a fair and just society.