Minseok Kim, Leader of Democratic Party, Declares Police Reform

Allegations have surfaced that cases of election law violations filed against Jinan County Mayor Jeon Choon-sung were inexplicably closed after his closest aide, his younger brother, was appointed as the head of the Jinan Police Station's investigation team. It was pointed out that Mayor Jeon Choon-sung was never investigated or contacted by the police during this process.

This situation has heightened concerns about the police's 'internal cover-up' practices and the possibility of investigation cover-ups.

A problem arose where cases transferred from Jinan Police Station to Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency were re-sent back to Jinan Police Station. Even cases directly submitted to the prosecution were routed through the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency and then sent back to Jinan Police Station, leading to criticism that transfer to higher authorities is not effective in preventing investigation cover-ups.

This is analyzed as 'internal cover-up' at play, where higher authorities, rather than independently handling cases, tend to maintain existing conclusions to avoid holding Jinan Police Station investigators accountable if investigation results are overturned.

Minseok Kim, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced in his National Assembly negotiating group speech that he would pursue police reform following prosecutorial reform. He emphasized his commitment to eradicating seven persistent malpractices of the police: 'internal cover-ups,' 'shelving cases,' 'unilateral termination of investigations,' 'destruction and manipulation of evidence,' 'leakage of investigation information,' and 'infringement of personal information.'

To achieve this, he declared plans to implement various reform measures, including expanding external audits, strengthening reasons for investigative recusal, enhancing accountability to victims, reinforcing legal responsibility for shoddy investigations, and strengthening the protection of citizens' personal information and privacy.

It was argued that investigative powers are currently excessively concentrated in the police, leading to overgrown police authority, and thus, institutional control measures are urgently needed. Specifically, it was pointed out that discussions on how to control overgrown police authority should have taken place and countermeasures should have been prepared in the National Assembly when the abolition of security investigative powers was being discussed.

Criticism was also raised that at the time, the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, which included the abolition of security investigative powers, was an opportunity to boost the approval ratings of the Democratic Party and the President, but it encountered public opposition, resulting in an absurd situation.