Kim Jong-chul: “Tackling abnormal-motive and relationship-based crimes is the top priority; improving frontline officers’ working conditions is also important”

[Financial News] Kim Jong-chul, nominee for commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, said on the 10th that he would focus on easing public anxiety about crime and ensuring the reformed criminal justice system takes root in a stable manner. He also stressed that he would work to ease the excessive workload of frontline police officers and improve their working conditions.
At about 6:15 a.m. that day, Kim met with reporters in the main lobby of the Korean National Police Agency headquarters in Seoul’s Seodaemun District as he arrived to prepare for his confirmation hearing. “My top priorities are how to ease the public’s anxiety over crimes with abnormal motives and relationship-based crimes, and how to ensure that the changed criminal justice system takes root on the ground,” he said.
Kim also named improving frontline officers’ working conditions as a key priority. “I think it is also an important task to determine how to structurally address frontline police officers’ growing workload, and how to ensure the safety of frontline staff and improve their treatment,” he said.
On his approach to the confirmation hearing, he said, “I take seriously the fact that I have been nominated to be commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency at a grave time when public expectations and concerns about the police are higher than ever.”
He added, “A confirmation hearing is an opportunity to assess a nominee’s abilities and qualifications. I will therefore participate sincerely and with a sense of responsibility.”
Kim was nominated to be commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency on the 6th, after the National Police Commission (South Korea) approved the appointment recommendation. The nomination is part of a process to fill a leadership vacuum in the police force that has lasted about one year and 11 months since former commissioner general Cho Ji-ho was suspended from duty in December 2024 because of the December 3 Martial Law Incident.
If Kim passes the National Assembly confirmation hearing and is appointed by the president, the police force will return to a formal commissioner-general-led structure.
On the 9th, the Korean National Police Agency formed a 13-member preparatory group organized into three teams to prepare for Kim’s National Assembly confirmation hearing. Lee Young-cheol, head of the agency’s Autonomous Police Planning Division and the Police Reform Task Force, led the group. Alongside preparations for the hearing, the group plans to draw up public-safety policy priorities for police reform and restoring public trust.

[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter