A police reform committee under the Prime Minister's Office is set to launch in mid-October.
The government's police reform committee will be chaired by Prime Minister Han Seong-sook and composed of officials from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the Ministry of Personnel Management, the Ministry of Government Legislation, the Korean National Police Agency and civilian experts. The panel will discuss ways to check police authority as prosecutors' offices are abolished starting Thursday, leaving police with full investigative power.
President Lee Jae Myung called again for police reform at a Cabinet meeting he presided over at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday.
Citing media reports that a police officer who fabricated a case received only a minor disciplinary penalty, Lee ordered tougher sanctions. "Police will now hold full investigative authority, and it does not seem appropriate to maintain the same level of discipline and accountability as in the past," he said.
"Because police have been given full investigative authority, external checks during investigations will not be easy," Lee said. "Responsibility grows far greater, and we must thoroughly build a system that ensures investigations are conducted fairly and objectively, and that corrects mistakes when they occur."
The government and ruling party have put police reform front and center following a string of investigative failures, including the improper closure of a missing-persons case in Jeju and the destruction of evidence in the Jang Yun-gi murder case.
The Democratic Party of Korea and the government agreed at a senior party-government consultative meeting held Sept. 13 at the prime minister's official residence in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, to push police reform aggressively. Democratic Party spokesperson Lee Yong-woo said at a briefing after the meeting that party leader Kim Min-seok had called for police reform to proceed "more forcefully than prosecution reform."
Earlier, the Democratic Party launched a police reform task force on Sept. 1, co-led by lawmakers Kim Nam-hee and Lee Hae-sik, and began drawing up a legislative agenda.
arin@heraldcorp.com
