Police on edge, leaderless: Acting chief post nears 2-year mark as appointment stalls again

South Korea's police force has come under sustained fire over a string of alleged cover-ups and shoddy investigations. President Lee Jae Myung and the ruling party have sharply criticized what they call a breakdown in discipline and a culture of irresponsibility within the force. With the prosecution service set to be abolished in October and police poised to take on greater investigative responsibility, scrutiny has only intensified — yet the position of commissioner general, the officer who would lead and be accountable for the entire organization, has remained vacant since the current government took office.

President Lee reshuffled his Cabinet on Sunday, replacing ministers across six portfolios including the economy and national security, but once again no nominee was named for commissioner general. Police will now have gone more than 20 months without a permanent chief, operating under an acting-director arrangement. Critics say the leadership vacuum must be filled before any meaningful conversation about accountability and reform can take place.

Within the force, some officers say the vacancy is directly connected to the failures seen on the ground — including the falsely closed missing-persons case in Jeju. "I think the recent holes in public safety are partly due to leaving the commissioner general post empty," one senior police official said. "There is no shortage of senior officers at the rank of senior superintendent general, so whatever reason is given for not making this appointment, it is hard to understand."

Another police official called the situation contradictory. "They say police responsibility has grown, yet they won't appoint a commissioner general," the official said. "It feels like the organization is being disrespected, and morale can only suffer."

Min Gwan-gi, chairman of the National Police Workplace Council, said the prolonged acting arrangement had thrown frontline operations into chaos. "Senior-level appointments have been backed up one after another, so everyone has stopped doing their jobs and is just watching which way the wind blows from above," he said.

Cheong Wa Dae acknowledged Monday that the acting-chief arrangement had dragged on too long, expressing regret. Presidential Chief of Staff for Political Affairs Hong Ik-pyo, appearing before the National Assembly's budget and accounts committee that day, said he was "sorry" after independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon raised the issue of the prolonged senior police vacancy. Hong added, however, that he did not believe the absence of top police leadership had necessarily translated into poor investigations on the ground.

Hong attributed the delay to legal constraints tied to the Dec. 3 insurrection, saying the former commissioner general had been a subject of investigation and could not be dismissed or removed from office, making it difficult to appoint a successor.

Former Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho was suspended from duty after the National Assembly passed an impeachment motion against him in the wake of the Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration. Because an impeached official retains their status until the Constitutional Court issues a final ruling, naming a successor had been impossible for some time. The court ordered Cho's removal from office last December, clearing the legal obstacle — yet the appointment has continued to be delayed.

Oh Yun-seong, a professor of police administration at Soonchunhyang University, called the situation unprecedented. "It would be hard to find a parallel anywhere in the world for a commissioner general post being vacant this long," he said. "Cheong Wa Dae and the government owe the public an explanation they can accept for why the person responsible for the basic order of society has gone unappointed for so long."

Oh also raised the possibility of political motives. "One cannot help but suspect that the intent is to keep police — the sole investigative agency — looking over their shoulders at the administration, as a way of bringing them to heel politically," he said.

Pressure on police to reform has been mounting. At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Lee said concerns over lax discipline and irresponsibility on public safety had become "serious," adding that police, set to wield the greatest power of any state institution, must match their expanded authority with greater accountability.

That same day, the Democratic Party of Korea announced the formation of a police reform task force, co-chaired by lawmakers Kim Nam-hee and Lee Hae-sik, signaling an aggressive push for change in line with the president's demands. Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung convened a police command meeting on Wednesday and ordered the force to draw up its own reform plan.