Acting Korean National Police Agency chief Kim Jong-cheol to pay respects at wake of Choi Bool-am, ‘honorary head of the National Office of Investigation’

[Financial News] Acting Korean National Police Agency chief Kim Jong-cheol and other senior police officials are scheduled to visit the wake of the late actor Choi Bool-am to pay their respects.
Based on reporting by Financial News on the 30th, Acting Chief Kim will visit Choi Bool-am’s wake at the funeral hall of Asan Medical Center in Songpa-gu, Seoul, at around 2 p.m. that day. He will be accompanied by the chief of the Korean National Police Agency’s Police Administration Bureau, the chief of the National Office of Investigation’s Security Investigation Bureau, its Security Investigation Review Officer, and its Cyber Investigation Review Officer, among others.
Choi Bool-am forged ties with the police through the hit drama ‘Chief Detective’ and served as an honorary police officer for around 50 years. In MBC’s ‘Chief Detective,’ which aired from 1971 to 1989, he played team leader Park Young-han, a detective who combined warmth with investigative prowess, and won widespread affection for the role.
In recognition of Choi Bool-am’s contribution to enhancing the police’s image, the police appointed him an honorary senior inspector in January 1972. He later advanced through the honorary ranks of superintendent, senior superintendent and superintendent general, and was promoted to honorary senior superintendent general in 2021.
In June 2024, 52 years after his appointment as an honorary police officer, he became the first civilian to attain the honorary rank of chief superintendent general. Choi Bool-am, who was appointed honorary head of the National Office of Investigation at the time, said, “I promise to use this important responsibility entrusted to me for the country as a whole.”
He died at the age of 87 at around 10 p.m. on the 29th while receiving inpatient treatment at a hospital in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. 

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