National Investigation Headquarters cancels Gwangju police meeting amid pressure over botched Jang Yun-gi probe

The National Investigation Headquarters of the Korean National Police Agency has postponed a scheduled meeting with the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency on Friday, as allegations of misconduct surrounding the Jang Yun-gi case — in which a high school student was murdered in Gwangju — continue to mount.

According to police, National Investigation Headquarters chief Hong Seok-gi had been touring provincial and metropolitan police agencies across the country since Monday, holding meetings with investigative commanders and field officers. The session with the Gwangju agency, scheduled for Friday, was called off. Hong visited the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency and other offices on Thursday to convey guidance on key issues and hear recommendations.

Analysts say the National Investigation Headquarters leadership grew wary of visiting Gwangju given that numerous officers from the agency are under investigation by both police and prosecutors over allegations that they botched the Jang Yun-gi probe.

The special investigation unit handling the Jang Yun-gi case has turned its focus beyond the Gwangju agency toward the National Investigation Headquarters command chain. Former investigators at the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station have testified that the headquarters directed them to exclude sex crime charges against Jang when forwarding the case for prosecution.

On Thursday, the special unit summoned Chief Inspector Choi, head of the violent crimes division at the National Investigation Headquarters, as a reference witness and questioned him about instructions given during the Jang investigation. Choi is suspected of relaying an order from former headquarters chief Park Seong-ju to the Gwangsan station to investigate Jang's murder and sexual violence cases separately. The unit also brought in Senior Superintendent Kim, who served as chief of the Gwangsan station at the time, as a suspect the same day and subjected him to more than 13 hours of intensive questioning.

As the Jang Yun-gi case has grown into a broader crisis of public trust in police investigations, the agency has been rolling out a series of internal reform measures.

As part of those efforts, the Korean National Police Agency said it would establish a reform TF on improving public trust in police investigations, to be led by outside experts. Attorney Kim Nam-jun of law firm Simin will chair the TF, with external specialists in the criminal justice field serving as members — including Yoon Dong-ho, a professor in the law department at Kookmin University, and Cho Sun-yeol, chairman of the Seoul Bar Association.

The agency said it was launching the reform TF "to improve the overall police investigation system" and pledged to "explain to the public as fully as possible the discussions and outcomes of the TF going forward."

The agency is also pushing to establish an internal corruption investigation unit directly under the National Investigation Headquarters chief as part of its measures to root out misconduct in police investigations. The unit would handle criminal cases related to the official duties of police agency civil servants.

At a regular press briefing at the agency on Monday, acting Commissioner General Yoo Jae-seong said police would "do their utmost to overhaul police investigations across the board with a spirit of painful self-reform, and to restore public trust."