Korean police, Interpol hold joint operation meeting to combat transnational crime

By Kim A-rin, The Herald Business

The Korean National Police Agency opened a joint operation meeting with Interpol on Tuesday to coordinate efforts against transnational crime. With scam and drug operations based in Southeast Asia still running rampant, police are stepping up international cooperation to apprehend criminal organizations and track down fugitives.

The agency said it is co-hosting the third international cooperation operation meeting, dubbed "Breaking Chains," along with the fugitive-tracking operation "INFRA-SEAF," in Seoul through Friday.

The meetings bring together Interpol, regional bodies including Aseanapol and Ameripol, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and law enforcement agencies from 19 countries — among them the United States, China, Japan and Cambodia. Crime intelligence officers and operational support officials from the participating agencies are expected to share information on transnational crime and refine their joint response frameworks.

Park Jun-seong, director of the agency's international law enforcement cooperation bureau, said the key development at this meeting was a sweeping expansion of cooperation beyond scam crimes to include drug offenses.

"If criminal organizations evolve by changing their methods and crossing between types of crime, international cooperation must be faster and more multidimensional," Park said. He added that the four-day meeting would focus intensively on 193 cases, enabling participating countries to launch immediate arrest operations upon returning home.

The agency is also pursuing plans to host an Interpol drug response center in South Korea as part of broader efforts to strengthen the government's core agenda of combating drug crime.