Kim Jongcheol nominee for National Police Agency chief forms confirmation hearing prep team... Superintendent General Lee Yeong-cheol to lead

[Financial News] The National Police Agency has formed a 13-member team to prepare for nominee Kim Jongcheol’s confirmation hearing before the National Assembly. Lee Yeong-cheol, head of the agency’s Autonomous Police Planning Division (also head of the Police Reform Task Force and a superintendent general), who has overseen police reform work, will lead the team and oversee preparations for the hearing and development of a policy vision.
According to the National Police Agency on the 9th, the confirmation hearing prep team consists of 13 members in three teams—a policy development team, a personal background response team and a National Assembly response team—under a superintendent general-level head.
Superintendent General Lee Yeong-cheol was appointed head of the prep team. The National Police Agency said the appointment took into account expertise and continuity in related work, including police reform and the implementation of the amended criminal justice system.
For team leader positions, one senior superintendent from each of three backgrounds—open recruitment as a rank-and-file officer, the police executive candidate program and the Korean National Police University—was assigned. The policy development team will be led by Park Jung-hoon, head of the National Police Agency’s Police Reform Planning Team; the personal background response team by Park Seong-gap, head of the Crime Prevention and Response Division at Seoul Songpa Police Station; and the National Assembly response team by Choi In-gyu, an official in charge of innovation planning and coordination at the National Police Agency.
The National Police Agency assigned three senior superintendent-level team leaders, one each from the open recruitment, executive candidate and police university entry routes. It said team members were also selected with their professional expertise and entry routes in mind to ensure that diverse views within the police organization were reflected in a balanced way.
The prep team’s size was also kept to a minimum. The National Assembly response team did not recruit separate staff; instead, four employees from the Assembly Affairs Section of the National Police Agency’s Innovation Planning and Coordination Office, the existing department responsible for National Assembly affairs, were assigned to handle the work.
The prep team will prepare for the National Assembly’s review of nominee Kim’s capabilities and qualifications at his confirmation hearing, while also fleshing out the future direction of police operations and policy tasks.
A National Police Agency official said, “We plan to develop concrete policy visions and tasks to translate the public’s hopes for a safer society and calls for police reform into public safety policies, and to restore public trust.”
Earlier that morning, nominee Kim met with reporters at the National Police Agency in Seoul’s Seodaemun District and said he would make the safety and lives of the public his top priority and focus on responding to violent crimes, including relationship-based crimes and crimes driven by abnormal motives.
In particular, while stressing the need to secure personnel and budget to ensure the new criminal justice system takes root and to protect frontline police officers, he also emphasized that the confirmation hearing prep team would be formed in a balanced way so it could gather as many views from the field as possible and reflect them in policy.
At the upcoming National Assembly confirmation hearing, nominee Kim is expected to outline his specific policy vision and resolve as a candidate for National Police Agency chief.
[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter