Kim Min-seok of the Democratic Party of Korea said on the 26th that he would move to reform the police.
Kim said at the Supreme Council meeting held that morning in Andong, North Gyeongsang, "We will accelerate police reform," adding, "The public and the president are of one mind in recognizing that police reform is very important right now and in raising the issue. The Democratic Party will take charge."
Referring to the false closure of a missing-person case in Jeju, Kim said, "We must root out the six major ills: covering for one's own, burying cases, unauthorized closures, evidence concealment and fabrication, leaks of investigative information, and invasions of personal information," and added, "We will seek alternatives such as expanding external audits, strengthening grounds for recusal from investigations, strengthening explanations to victims, external audits, and strengthening legal responsibility for illegal and shoddy investigations." Kim went on, "We must more firmly establish command supervision and accountability in line with the chain of command," and said, "We will protect investigations that safeguard the public, and we will decisively reform investigative powers that infringe on the public's rights and interests."
Kim also explained why the party appointed first-term lawmakers Kim Nam-hui and Lee Hae-sik as Director General of the task force to push police reform at the party level. Kim said, "The bold move to appoint first-term lawmakers, and the restraint of placing lawmakers with police backgrounds not as Commissioners, where they would ordinarily be assigned, but in advisory roles, are solely because of the goal of carrying out police reform that is transparent, swift, and strong."