Korea to provide less-lethal guns to police officers

Social Affairs

Published: 29 Aug. 2023, 11:30 Updated: 29 Aug. 2023, 19:28

Korea to provide less-lethal guns to police officers

A police officer aims a gun that had been modified to be less lethal at the National Police Agency in Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The police will distribute less-lethal guns to all police officers on field duty in response to the recent surge in random attacks.

The guns will be loaded with less-fatal rounds.

According to the police, the gun has been modified so that when firing a plastic bullet, the impact is one-tenth of that produced by a .38 Special Smith & Wesson revolver.

When shot in the thigh with the .38 Special, it could penetrate up to 48 centimeters.

The modified handgun can only penetrate 6 to 7 centimeters.

The handgun, developed by SNT Motiv in 2020, is also capable of loading blanks and 9-millimeter bullets.

The firing distance is three times that of a taser gun.

Weighing 515 grams, the handgun is lighter than the 680-gram .38 Special.

The primary purpose is to immobilize assailants instead of fatally harming them, particularly those carrying lethal weapons and posing threats to the lives of engaged police officers.

While the handgun is less lethal than a regular gun, it could still be fatal when aimed at vital organs.

SNT Motiv's handgun with plastic bullets that are less lethal. [YONHAP]

The government plans to allocate 8.6 billion won from its budget to distribute 5,700 modified handguns next year.

Over the course of three years, every 50,000 police officers in local precincts will be permitted to possess a handgun, whether it's the modified version or the .38 revolver.

At present, 22,000 .38 revolvers have been distributed, accounting for 44 percent of the 50,000 police officers.

President Yoon Suk Yeol said additional safety equipment will be provided to 101 police squadrons.

He said the government will enhance police capacity to ensure public safety by taking measures such as increasing combat training for police officers and incorporating the latest technologies, such as virtual reality, into the officers' training regimen.

The fear of random attacks among the public has grown because of a series of attacks against people in public that took place across Korea, which has prompted the need to take measures to strengthen public security.

These incidents include the knife attacks in Sillim-dong last month and at Seohyeon Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, earlier this month.

The most recent incident involved a man raping and killing a woman.

Meanwhile, the government's plan to reintroduce a conscripted police system as a measure to combat heinous crimes, which was announced by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo last week, is likely to be abandoned due to significant opposition from both the public and the military.

Han mentioned that the government might explore the possibility of reinstating an auxiliary police system, which would involve conscripts serving in the police force rather than the military.

The aim was to support crime prevention efforts against random acts of violence and ensure public safety.

The announcement drew attention as the system, which was first adopted in 1982, was gradually discontinued since 2017.

It was completely shut down in April.

An armed police officer patrols the commercial area of Gangnam subway station in southern Seoul on Aug. 7, a few days after 22-year-old Choi Won-jong attacked people at a subway station connected to a mall in Bundang, Gyeonggi. [YONHAP]

One of the key reasons in ending the program of conscripted police was the military's own struggle to maintain its active-duty personnel.

This is due to a diminishing pool of eligible men between the ages of 18 and 35, who are required to fulfill nearly two years of military service.

As of this year, South Korea’s standing military forces counted 500,000 troops. The last time this number was above 600,000 was in 2018.

Despite the military's plan, outlined in December, to maintain the forces at 500,000 until 2027, the pool of young male recruits has been rapidly shrinking.

According to the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, in order to sustain the standing forces above the 500,000 mark, an annual intake of 220,000 young individuals is necessary. However, in the past year, the number of young men in their 20s only slightly surpassed the 220,000 target, reaching 260,000.

By the year 2037, the cohort of men in their 20s is projected to dip below 200,000, and by 2040, this figure is anticipated to plummet to 140,000. These statistics suggest that the military itself could encounter challenges in upholding its current operational capacity.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]