[Reporter’s Notebook] Northern Gyeonggi was missing from audits of Gyeonggi Province and the National Police Agency

At the Gyeonggi Province audit hearing of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee on the 13th, questions continued about provincial affairs and budget execution. Watching the proceedings, one question came to mind: Were issues in Northern Gyeonggi given as much weight as the controversies surrounding Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae and the issues in Southern Gyeonggi that drew so much attention? Even as the audit target shifted from the Gyeonggi Provincial Government to the National Police Agency, Northern Gyeonggi’s voice rarely emerged as a major agenda item.
National Assembly audits are an opportunity to identify blind spots overlooked by government agencies and bring the voices of residents in the province’s 31 cities and counties onto the central political agenda. Yet at this audit, attention focused on the vetting of Kim Ji-yong, nominee to head the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA), with questions directed at Governor Choo, as well as political wrangling over the “Yeouido governor” label and issues in southern Gyeonggi such as the semiconductor industry, metropolitan transit networks, and power and water supply facilities. Northern Gyeonggi was comparatively sidelined. It is disappointing that the structural challenges Northern Gyeonggi has long faced, as its development lagged amid reverse discrimination stemming from regulations on the capital region, may not have been adequately addressed.
The same pattern continued at the National Police Agency audit. Public safety is an administrative service directly connected to residents’ daily lives. Policing needs inevitably vary by region because population size, living conditions, transportation, and the scope of jurisdictions differ. That is why careful scrutiny reflecting each region’s characteristics was needed. Yet this audit focused on issues including the effectiveness of smartwatches, crime-prevention measures in Southern Gyeonggi, and expansion of public-safety infrastructure. By contrast, Northern Gyeonggi’s concerns received comparatively little attention: the challenges of responding across extensive jurisdictions, frontline staffing that cannot keep pace with public-safety needs, and policing that reflects the particular circumstances of border areas.
Just as they reviewed public-safety measures in the south, they should also have examined gaps in the north. The principle that people must be guaranteed safety does not vary according to where they live. Of course, it is difficult to address every region’s issues with equal weight. Lawmakers prepare different questions, and audit time is limited. It is also possible that Northern Gyeonggi’s problems were examined through written questions or requests for information, beyond the questions asked publicly. Even so, it is worth reflecting on which issues were brought into public discussion at the audit and what answers government agencies were required to provide.
Questions from the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea serve as a starting point for bringing issues into public discussion, eliciting accountable answers from government agencies, and calling for changes in policy and budgets. So how much attention was given to Northern Gyeonggi at the hearing reviewing the direction of Gyeonggi’s provincial administration? And, as lawmakers called the police to account, were the public-safety conditions experienced by residents of the north examined sufficiently? Lawmakers should consider whether the weight given to their questions properly reflected realities across the regions.
Northern Gyeonggi is not seeking special treatment. It wants attention and responsible discussion that take a clear-eyed look at the realities facing the region and seek solutions suited to them. Did the National Assembly, which audited Gyeonggi Province and the police, adequately capture the voices of Northern Gyeonggi? That is the question this audit leaves behind.
[email protected] Kim Gyeong-su Reporter