According to the Global Network, the South Korean government and the Executive Yuan are in a tense confrontation with the South Korean police, which is caused by the passage of a bill in the South Korean Parliament that will establish a separate police station in the Ministry of Administrative Security to supervise and manage the police organs and have the power to directly control the command and personnel changes of the police.
In simple terms, an airborne police station became the boss of the original police station, a bit like the reform of the procuratorate in the Moon Jae-in era - the establishment of a prosecutor's office independent of the prosecutor's office, which is responsible for investigating the malfeasance of prosecutors. Both are essentially designed to limit the powers of the prosecutor's office or the police.
It is worth mentioning that the biggest breakthrough in Moon Jae-in's reform of the procuratorial system is to change the relationship between the procuratorate and the police station to a level. In South Korea, prosecutors are the subject of investigations in all kinds of cases, and the police can only assist from the side, similar to the relationship between generals and soldiers.
To put it bluntly, the police are an errand runner, and the work of checking and monitoring, collecting information, and the beginning and end of the investigation procedure are all decided by the procurator. Without the consent of the prosecutor, the police have no right to conduct the investigation themselves, let alone stop the investigation. This has resulted in the police being completely dominated by prosecutors during the actual investigation.
When necessary, prosecutors are also personally involved in the collection of evidence, such as interrogating suspects. To put it bluntly, in major cases, as long as the prosecutor does not need someone to intervene, the police have little use.
Not only that, but the actual powers of the Public Prosecutor's Office are even higher than those of the Minister of Justice. South Korea implements a system of separation of powers, and the executive, legislative and judicial powers are controlled by the Executive Yuan, the National Assembly and the courts respectively.
As the supreme prosecutor's office of South Korea's highest procuratorate, it needs to accept the jurisdiction of the Legal Department of the Executive Yuan, and in theory, the highest prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, the Prosecutor General, is lower than the Minister of Justice.
The problem, however, is that the Public Prosecutor's Office has absolute independence and can investigate all senior officials, including the President, while the Minister of Justice has only supervisory powers and cannot interfere in the prosecutor's investigations.
The "dispute between the judicial procuratorates" of that year was the best proof that Moon Jae-in wanted to reform the procuratorial organs, and the then procuratorial director Yin Xiyue led the procuratorate to collectively commit crimes, forcing Cao Guo and Qiu Mei'ai to resign one after another, and finally although it was difficult to pass the reform bill, it failed to fundamentally solve the problem of excessive power of the procuratorate.
After the storm passed, Yoon Seok-woo resigned as attorney general and turned to political party activities, and was successfully elected president of South Korea in March 2022. After Yin Xiyue came to power, he used the same method to deal with the Police Department and established a "Police Department of the Ministry of Administrative Security" similar to the Prosecutor's Office of the Ministry of Justice, so as to strengthen the government's control over the police organs.
Although the Police Department does not cover the sky with one hand like the Prosecutor's Office, it is not a soft persimmon for others to hold. After the government issued an order to dissolve the collective action of the National Police Agency, 190 substation police chiefs in South Korea refused to comply and forcibly convened the "National Police Chiefs Conference", and the police chief who led the meeting, Yoo Sam-young, was suspended, and the contradictions between the two sides were further intensified.
Regarding this incident, there are also differences of opinion within the police. Those who disagree with the reform believe that Moon Jae-in will not hesitate to make enemies of the procuratorate and increase the power of the police, but as soon as Yoon Seok-yue comes to power, he will have to fight everything back to its original form, which is likely to undermine the neutrality of the police.
As the situation continued to ferment, the police chiefs meeting that was originally scheduled to be held at the end of the month was replaced by the participation of 140,000 police officers across the country, and the whole network broadcast was conducted in order to increase the propaganda offensive and arouse national sympathy.
Lee Seung-min, South Korea's minister of administration and security, reacted fiercely to such organized actions, saying that the nature of the police's violation of government orders was too bad, no less than the "Double Twelve Coup" in 1979, when the police played a role in suppressing the democracy movement and were deeply disliked by the people.
Mr. Lee also said the police could be armed with guns, and if they were left unchecked, they were likely to overthrow the government with guns. This remark caused an uproar in public opinion, and some South Korean netizens published articles mockingly saying that the National Police Agency of the Republic of Korea has died, and the police agency will soon become a private tool of the chaebol and the government like the procuratorate.
There has also been a heated debate in South Korean politics. Lawmakers from South Korea's largest opposition party, Moon Jae-in's former party, demonstrated en masse at the door of Yoon Seok-wook's office to protest the government's involvement in the police department's party dispute and undermine the credibility of the police.
Some scholars have analyzed that the contradictions between the two sides may continue to intensify, and the possibility of evolving into an internal struggle cannot be ruled out. But if it does come to that day, I am afraid it will only be the result of a lose-lose situation.
After all, after Yin Xiyue made a big fuss that year, he also resigned from the post of procurator general, and now Yin Xiyue's support rate has continued to decline, and he has fallen below 40% in less than half a year after taking office.