Acting Korean National Police Agency Commissioner Yoo Jae-seong apologized and said he would prepare measures to prevent a recurrence in connection with the control of the National Assembly at the time, ahead of the first anniversary of the Dec. 3 martial law crisis.
Yoo stated accordingly while presiding over a "nationwide police leadership video conference" on the morning of the 1st. He said, "On the night of Dec. 3 last year, after the declaration of martial law, the police controlled lawmakers' access around the National Assembly," and added, "The actions at that time were unconstitutional and illegal, which disturbed democracy and the constitutional order and threatened people's daily lives."
He went on to say, "Due to the wrong decisions of some members of the leadership at the time, the police, who must protect the people's freedom and social order, were mobilized for unconstitutional martial law, causing great disappointment and hurt to the public," and added, "I sincerely apologize that the honor and pride of frontline police officers who have quietly stood by the people were also damaged."
Yoo said, "Going forward, the police will look only to the people and conduct police duties with the protection of constitutional order as a core value." He continued, "We will perform our duties under the Constitution and the law, and will never cooperate with unconstitutional or illegal acts under any circumstances," adding, "We will make improvements so that unlawful or unjust orders from individual commanders are never relayed to the field without scrutiny again."
Yoo also said, "We will closely establish citizen control mechanisms across all police activities so that police authority is exercised solely for the people," and added, "From the leadership on down, we will change with a sense of responsibility and work harder to earn public trust so that such events never recur."