President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House in central Seoul on Aug. 25, addressing police reform amid recent revelations of the mishandling of missing-person cases.JOINT PRESS CORPS
President Lee Jae Myung called for better accountability and sweeping police reform at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday amid deepening public distrust in the wake of recent police mishaps, including a seemingly bungled missing persons case in Jeju.
“Police will exercise the greatest power among state institutions in the future,” Lee said at the Blue House in central Seoul. “Responsibility must be strengthened in proportion to the magnitude of authority.”
Lee then ordered the Prime Minister's Office to formulate a plan to establish a police reform body after gathering a broader cross-section of public opinion.
The president’s instructions come as his administration and the ruling Democratic Party (DP) push to overhaul the criminal justice system, abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers while handing more authority to police.
However, Lee pointed to “serious issues regarding lax police discipline and lack of accountability,” noting that “public concern is very high" as a result.
The body of Jang Mi-ran, who disappeared from a lodging in Jeju in May, was discovered on Monday despite Jeju police prematurely closing the case. The case has brought attention to police mishandling of several other missing-person cases. Police also recently drew scrutiny over allegedly covering up evidence in the murder of a high school girl in Gwangju and providing preferential treatment to the chief suspect, the son of a police officer. Alleged police mishandling of cases has deepened public doubts about its readiness to assume greater investigative authority from the prosecution.
“The police are a vital national institution based on a strict chain of command, so responsibility for leadership is crucial,” Lee said. “If a frontline officer is found to have made a mistake, and only that officer is held accountable, then what is the point of having a chain of command? Leadership entails authority, but it in turn demands accountability measurable to that authority.”
The DP-led National Assembly passed a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act, stripping prosecutors of their direct investigation powers, at the end of last month. The bill passed the Cabinet earlier this month and will take effect on Oct. 2.
A police line is seen on Aug. 25 near the site in Hallim-eup, Jeju City, where the body of Jang Mi-ran was discovered months after she went missing in a missing-person case prematurely closed by Jeju police.NEWS1
“Because doubts are arising regarding whether such authority is sufficient to fully fulfill the corresponding responsibilities, I ask that you give serious consideration to the police reform body and how to reform the police in the future,” Lee told his Cabinet.
The president’s remarks to his Cabinet build on his statement on the Jeju missing persons case on Monday, when he called for “a thorough clarification of the truth regarding the entire police investigation."
The DP on Tuesday also formed a police reform task force headed by Rep. Kim Nam-hee, who has devised measures to protect crime victims.
Kim is a prominent opponent within the party of the complete abolition of the prosecution's direct investigative authority.
During the Cabinet meeting, Lee also called for sound fiscal management as the National Assembly comes up with a budget for next year, taking into consideration “balanced regional development, growing talent and building a future ladder for youth."
The government and the DP held a meeting on the budget bill at the National Assembly on Tuesday morning and decided to push for a record 800 trillion won ($578 billion) budget as Korea focuses on investing in AI and advanced technology, supporting youth and addressing polarization.
“With the rapid growth of advanced industries such as semiconductors driven by the great AI transformation, our economy is facing conditions entirely different from the past,” Lee said at the Cabinet meeting, pointing to an expected windfall in tax revenue due to the semiconductor boom. “We must effectively utilize the opportunities created by this industrial transformation to drive a substantial leap forward in the lives of our people.”
“In particular, we must firmly establish our increased fiscal capacity as a seed to harvest greater fruits in the future and shift toward a productive fiscal strategy,” Lee said.
