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Military counterintelligence dissolving after 49 years

Published: 09 Jan. 2026, 00:00

Vehicles enter and exit the Defense Counterintelligence Command headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on the afternoon of Dec. 9, 2024, as prosecutors from the special investigation headquarters probing the Dec. 3, 2024 martial law incident conduct a search and seizure operation at the facility. [NEWS1]

The Defense Counterintelligence Command, which has carried out counterintelligence and the collection and processing of military-related information, is expected to be dismantled.

The Counterintelligence and Security Redesign Subcommittee, under the civilian-government-military joint special advisory committee which began its work in September last year, recommended a plan to dismantle the command to Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back on Thursday and publicly disclosed detailed measures for the reorganization. The core of the recommendation is to transfer the command’s security investigation authority to the defense ministry’s investigation headquarters, which functions as the military police, while relocating counterintelligence information and security audit functions to two newly established bodies: a defense security intelligence agency and the central security audit group, both provisional names.

The advisory committee also recommended abolishing the personnel intelligence and trend-monitoring functions that the command had conducted to support the promotions of generals and other senior officers.

The Defense Ministry is expected to accept most of the recommendations. The ministry said it would “prepare detailed organizational restructuring plans based on the advisory committee’s recommendations and pursue the reorganization of the command in stages, including legal and institutional revisions and unit planning, with the goal of completion within this year.”

If implemented, the move would bring to an end an organization that has existed for 49 years since its launch in 1977 as the Armed Forces Security Command, later renamed the Defense Security Command and then the Military Counterintelligence Command. While the organization has undergone repeated restructuring, this would mark the first time it has been effectively dismantled and divided.

The dismantling had been anticipated since the launch of the Lee Jae Myung government. During the Dec. 3, 2024 imposition of martial law, the then-commander of the counterintelligence unit was found to have played a central role, including relaying instructions to operate a team tasked with arresting politicians to other agencies. The abolition of the command was included in the policy blueprint released by the government’s state affairs planning committee in August last year, with follow-up measures now taking concrete form.

It is unfortunate that the command has been repeatedly entangled in major political incidents since its creation, becoming a recurring target of restructuring or dissolution. Its role during the martial law episode is another stain on that history.

However, misconduct by senior officials who participated in an illegal martial law does not justify weakening the command’s essential functions. While painful reform is necessary, the government must ensure that core counterintelligence roles, such as identifying spies within the military and gathering related information, are not diminished or left with gaps.

It is also essential to prevent the loss of investigative methods and accumulated intelligence during the transfer of responsibilities. Institutional safeguards are needed to ensure that successor organizations do not emerge as new power centers or become sources of interagency conflict. The dismantling must not lead to the rise of second or third counterintelligence bodies. Reform should result in more being gained than lost.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.