Ruling bloc sets police reform

Representatives from Cheong Wa Dae, the government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea hold hands during a trilateral meeting over police reform at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

A new unit will be set up under the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) that will be independent from the current police administrative structure, the ruling bloc said Monday.

Cheong Wa Dae, the government and the ruling party added that this move was part of plans to reform the police force to prevent an excessive expansion of its power.

The plans come amid strong opposition from prosecutors to the government's judiciary reform efforts that include expanding the independent investigative authority of the police to reduce the power wielded by the prosecution. Prosecutors, as well as some critics, have raised concerns over the police receiving too much authority.

The three-way meeting was held at the National Assembly, attended by senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Cho Kuk, Interior Minister Chin Young, KNPA Commissioner General Min Gab-ryong and ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) floor leader Lee In-young.

“By controlling administrative involvement in investigations and quickly implementing the planned autonomy system, we will decentralize police power,” Rep. Cho Jeong-sik, the ruling party's chief policymaker who also attended the meeting, said in a media briefing at the Assembly.

The new KNPA investigative organization will take charge of investigations without handling administrative affairs or issues about public safety and order. It will be independent of the commissioner general and regional agency heads, so they will not be able to interfere with investigations.

In addition, its leadership position will be open to former and current senior police officers with a minimum of 10 years investigative experience, as well as to judges, prosecutors and lawyers with over 10 years of experience.

The government said this was part of enacting its municipal police system plan.

By 2022, 43,000 police officers from the national police organization will be transferred to local police bodies, tasked with dealing with public security-related affairs.

To ensure this, the ruling bloc must get the system passed into law at the National Assembly and so it is asking all lawmakers to approve the relevant revision bills. It also needs to select five jurisdictions and regions for test operations as soon as possible through a selection committee.

Rep. Cho said a system will also be set up to permanently prevent police officers in charge of collecting intelligence from carrying out illegal surveillance on people critical of the government, in an effort to maintain the KNPA's political neutrality.

This move comes after Kang Shin-myung, a former police chief, was arrested last week on charges of illegally intervening in politics in 2016 during the Park Geun-hye administration. The case highlighted suspected police intervention in politics and the illegal surveillance.

Participants of the trilateral meeting also agreed to lower the freshmen quota of the Korean National Police University from 100 to 50 to prevent its graduates from monopolizing ranking positions.

These measures are largely seen as a move to ease complaints from the prosecution, as Prosecutor-General Moon Moo-il has expressed repeated opposition to a judiciary reform plan by saying excessive police power will infringe on the basic rights of the people.