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Interior Minister Lee Sang-min speaks during a special briefing to address his position on the police's resistance to a government plan to establish a supervisory bureau to put law enforcement officers under the ministry's control, at the government complex building in central Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

Resistance intensifies with more collective action set to take place

By Ko Dong-hwan

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min strongly criticized the chiefs of police precincts Monday for their collective action on Saturday against the envisioned launch of a supervisory bureau inside the interior ministry, calling it "an incident akin to a military coup."

During a news briefing, Lee said Saturday's meeting of police officials reminded him of the Dec. 12 military coup led by a group of generals that took place weeks after the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979.

"A lot of time has passed since then and we now live in an era when a military coup has become an unimaginable incident. But the fact that armed officials went ahead and gathered despite a warning from their superior and discussed an action against the government is a serious matter," he said, indicating that the ministry will investigate those involved in the collective action.

The minister's strongly-worded criticism came days after some 190 senior police officials from across the country responded to calls by Ulsan Jungbu Police Station Senior Superintendent Ryu Sam-young to gather and discuss how to react to the interior ministry's plan to launch a supervisory bureau to put the police under its control.

The bottom-up protest against the supervisory bureau has gained momentum from within the ranks of the police and spread quickly with more police officers voicing their willingness to join the collective action.

The ongoing standoff between the national police and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety intensified on Monday as some superintendent-level officials said they will hold another meeting to protest the ministry's plan and urged other officials to join.

Superintendent Kim Seong-jong from Gwangjin Police Station in Seoul's Gwangjin District posted on Sunday a message on an intranet website for the national police saying he will host a nationwide meeting of superintendents and lieutenant police officers on July 30 at the Police Human Resource Development Institute in the city of Asan, South Chungcheong Province. That is the same place where the police officials held their previous meeting.

"If we lose our faithful leaders who risked their own careers to do the right thing, we will end up serving government officials blinded by their own interests," Kim said on the website. "I will take the risk of receiving a probation or being investigated by internal affairs."

Yoo Geun-chang, the chief of a police station in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, suggested on the website on Monday that the meeting hosted by Kim be expanded to include the chiefs of other smaller police stations and that he will join the meeting this Saturday.

"Senior superintendents gathered last Saturday to ponder over the future of the national police force, but what they got from the central government was probation and an inspection for illicit activities," Yoo said. "I want to join the meeting this Saturday and express my respect for my colleagues."

One police officer in Seoul urged superintendents and lieutenants to do something to show the national police's solidarity against the central government's plan.

Members of the public police officials' council and the national public workers' union's national police agency group also began protesting Monday against the interior ministry's launch of the supervisory bureau. They took to the streets in front of KTX stations across the country to raise awareness of the issue to passers-by and launched a one-person protest in front of the NPA headquarters in Migeun-dong area in Seoul's Seodaemun District.

One of the leaders of the police officials' council, who is from Cheongwon Police Station in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, stages a one-person protest in front of the National Police Agency's headquarters in Migeun-dong in Seodaemun District, Seoul, Monday, against the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's plan to launch a supervisory bureau overseeing the national police force. Yonhap

Ulsan Jungbu Police Station Senior Superintendent Ryu organized Saturday's meeting. Fifty six senior superintendents from across the country joined the meeting and 140 joined online via a video-call. After the meeting, Yoon Hee-keun, the candidate for the National Police Agency's commissioner, put Ryu on probation for organizing the unauthorized meeting.

After news of the punishment, Ryu suggested that the punishment did not single-handedly come from Yoon but from higher up, including the interior minister who has been adamant about launching the bureau and putting the national police under his control.

Politicians voiced opposing reactions to Saturday's meeting. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Sunday issued a statement supporting the meeting, calling it a "justifiable protest against the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's attempt to own the national police force."

Rep. Woo Sang-ho, interim chief of the DPK, called the interior ministry's plan what a "military junta would do." He said that if public prosecutors and the nation's chief prosecutors could meet, national police chiefs should also be able to meet.

"I strongly doubt this matter needs to be dealt with by suspension and this is not a problem that can be addressed by silencing the police," he said.

Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the ruling People Power Party's floor leader and acting chairman, on Monday, condemned the police officials protesting the ministry's plan. During a floor leaders' meeting, Rep. Kweon said that whereas the police officials had remained quiet during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, they are now taking collective action as there is about to be a supervisory bureau over them. He called the police officials' movement a "biased political choice."

"Have you been serving the public or the authorities?" Rep Kweon asked. "They are just fretting while never missing a monthly wage funded by taxpayers' money."

The president on Monday told reporters upon arriving at the Yongsan presidential office that he "trusts the interior ministry and the NPA will handle the matter in question well." He also expressed his faith in the NPA commissioner candidate to persuade the public regarding the ministry's controversial plan during an audit hearing later this month. The candidate is scheduled to appear at a hearing by the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee at the end of this month.