Is South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol seeking to crush opponents with new police bureau?
- A new bureau at the home ministry has sparked criticism that the political neutrality of the 130,000-strong police force will be undermined
- Analysts say the move has triggered memories of the country’s previous era of strongman rule
The bureau was launched on Tuesday, but about 65 per cent of the country’s 551 police superintendents, backed by more than 100,000 officers, have already expressed their opposition.
Some 140 police officials met both offline and online to raise their concerns last month, in a rare act of defiance that made headlines.
Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min blasted the gathering as evoking a “military coup”, and the National Police Agency headquarters indefinitely suspended Superintendent Ryu Sam-young, head of a police station in the southern city of Ulsan, who led the gathering.
“Under the constitution, police must stick to political neutrality … Setting up a police bureau under the ministry is undercutting police’s political neutrality. Undermining their political neutrality rather amounts to disturbing constitutional order like a military coup,” Ryu told reporters last week.
South Korean police used to belong to the home ministry, until a student activist was killed by a detective during a torture session in 1987. The death of Park Jong-chul sparked widespread protests, forcing the military government to yield to pressure to restore democracy.