Police oversight bureau passed by Cabinet despite growing protests

Politics

Published: 26 Jul. 2022, 17:49 Updated: 27 Jul. 2022, 15:49

Police oversight bureau passed by Cabinet despite growing protests

Rep. Park Hong-keun, center, floor leader of the Democratic Party, and other lawmakers hold a press conference protesting the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s plan to establish a police oversight bureau under the Interior Ministry, near the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The Cabinet approved a police oversight bureau run by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety despite intensifying opposition from front-line police officers.

An enforcement decree enabling the creation of the new bureau was passed in a Cabinet meeting Tuesday chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. The bureau will allow the ministry more direct control over the police including personnel appointments, disciplinary action and audits, and will start up on Aug. 2.

The 16-member bureau will be comprised of 12 police officers and four government officials. It will have three divisions: general support for overseeing police-related policies and regulations; human resources, which will make police appointment recommendations; management of police autonomy.

On Tuesday morning, President Yoon Suk-yeol told reporters, "Like all people, I have deep concerns about the collective actions of the public security chiefs," referring to a meeting of police precinct chiefs over the weekend.

Addressing the police protests in a sterner tone than previously, he said, "Collectively protesting against the government's policies and reorganization plans, pursued under the Constitution and the law, could be a serious breach of state discipline."

Yoon added, "The president is ultimately the commander and supervisor of the country's basic affairs, such as national defense and public order."

The previous day, Yoon refrained from taking an explicit stance on the issue and only said, "I believe the Interior Ministry and National Police Agency will do well and take necessary measures."

On Saturday, a group of 190 police precinct chiefs attended a virtual and in-person conference at the Police Human Resources Training Institute in Asan, South Chungcheong, and issued a statement calling on the Interior Ministry to shelve its plan for the oversight bureau.

On Monday, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min lambasted those senior officers for violating an order from the National Police Agency chief to disband. His remarks compared the precinct chiefs actions to Chun Doo Hwan's military coup d'état of Dec. 12, 1979.

A group of liberal Democratic Party (DP) legislators held a rally in front of the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Tuesday to protest the minister's remarks.

Rep. Park Hong-keun, the DP floor leader, said that Minister Lee, who is close to Yoon, was guilty of an "administrative coup" through his actions in his press conference.

He called on the president to "apologize for causing turmoil and focus on people's livelihoods." The DP lawmakers later delivered a letter protesting the police oversight bureau to the presidential office.

Meanwhile, Yoon's own People Power Party (PPP) called for "all possible measures" against the police's so-called collective action protesting the plan, calling it disobedience.

"Like the military, the police are a public authority with guns," said Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the PPP's acting chair and floor leader, in a party meeting Tuesday. "Collective protests will absolutely not be tolerated." He said police disobedience should be punished.

However, following the precinct chief's gathering last weekend, a general meeting of the 140,000-strong police force to protest the police bureau on Saturday is in the works.

A meeting in Asan of all police personnel was proposed by Kim Seong-jong, a Seoul Gwangjin Police Precinct superintendent, through a post on the police intranet Tuesday.

A meeting initially had been planned for senior officers but was expanded to include all police personnel "due to the fervent response of the front-line police officers," wrote Kim.

Kim estimates at least 1,000 officers to take part in the meeting, which will also be streamed on YouTube.

Police are set to gain more investigative authority from recently revised laws that will eventually abolish all prosecutorial investigative powers.

The Yoon administration says the bureau will allow the interior minister to manage the National Police Agency in a more transparent and democratic manner. It said that previously, the office of the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, scrapped under the Yoon government, supervised the police.

Yoon has come down hard on police before and used similar language on July 23 saying there had been a lapse in "state discipline" after a controversy surrounding leaks and retractions of appointments of police senior superintendents.

Later Tuesday, Yoon received policy briefings from Interior Minister Lee and Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, a former prosecutor.

Yoon called on Han to "establish an efficient cooperation system between the prosecution and police," said presidential spokesperson Kang In-sun during a press briefing.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]