Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min, center, answers reporters' questions in front of the police bureau set up under the interior ministry at the Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
By Nam Hyun-woo
Kim Sun-ho, head of the new police bureau under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, enters the bureau at the Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
A police supervisory bureau under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety was launched on Tuesday amid backlash from officers and the main opposition party.
According to the ministry, the police bureau will be in charge of tabling police-related bills to the Cabinet, as well as handling the personnel management of ranking officers and supporting other law enforcement activities.
The bureau will be led by Kim Sun-ho, former head of the National Police Agency's National Security Investigation Bureau, and is comprised of 16 staffers.
Many of the bureau members are police officers who began their careers in the police agency as entry-level officers.
Including Kim, 12 out of 16 bureau members are police officers, but only one of them, Senior Superintendent Woo Ji-wan, is a police university graduate.
"I am so delighted that the police bureau finally began operating after going through all of the difficulties," Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min told reporters as he entered his office at the Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, Seoul.
When asked about excluding police university graduates from the bureau, Lee said, "The number isn't everything."
Lee said the bureau will come up with plans to have at least 20 percent of ranking posts in police forces filled with officers who started their law enforcement careers as entry-level officers. Police university graduates start their police careers as inspectors, the fourth-highest rank from the top.
The bureau's establishment came 37 days after the Yoon Suk-yeol government officially announced a plan to set up the office to put the police under its control, and 31 years after the police force was separated from the then Ministry of Home Affairs, the predecessor of the interior ministry, to stand as an independent law enforcement authority.
The establishment of the bureau became controversial, as ranking police officials claimed that it is aimed at controlling the police, which will end up violating the independence of law enforcement officers, describing the move as what a "military junta" would do.
Police protests against the move peaked on July 23, when a group of senior superintendents heading police stations across the country gathered to state their opposition. Ulsan Jungbu Police Station Senior Superintendent Ryu Sam-young, the main organizer of the meeting, was suspended from his job immediately after the meeting, while the interior minister compared the gathering to "a coup."
After an enforcement ordinance on the bureau's establishment was approved at a Cabinet meeting on July 26, protests have weakened. But further conflict is anticipated as the issue has triggered fierce political debates.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) set up a response committee on the police bureau on Monday, claiming its establishment was unlawful.
The party has also requested Ryu appear for testimony at the confirmation hearing for the National Police Agency Commissioner General nominee Yoon Hee-keun, which is scheduled for Aug. 8.
