the decision was taken yesterday during the meeting of representatives of the government, presidential administration and the ruling Democratic party “Tabora”.
the Complex is envisaged reforms is quite extensive. If you point out only the main directions, they can be summarized as the transfer of significant powers of investigation, and partly to the collection of information in favour of the police, while the impact of the Prosecutor’s office and the LDCs will be significantly limited.
the Most striking, though not the most important in fact change will be the name change of the home country’s intelligence agencies – the National intelligence service, which, despite its name, integrates the functions of intelligence and counterintelligence. Under the bill, the LDC will now be called (if we translate literally from Korean) Service of external security and intelligence (SVBR) of the Republic of Korea.
This will be the fourth name change in the history of existence of this structure. In 1961-1980 years it was called the Central intelligence Agency of Kazakhstan, in the years 1981-1998 – Agency planning, national security, and from 1999 to the present day – the National intelligence service.
As you might guess, it is not only the change of “signs”. A new intelligence Agency of South Korea in the face of the SVBR will lose part of the powers of the current LDCs. In particular, it is prohibited to gather any inside information on the situation in South Korea, to conduct investigations in cases of activities in favor of North Korea.
the secret service would have to concentrate exclusively on the “external” work, and added the word in its name. Priority SVBR will work on obtaining intelligence information abroad, and also on North Korea. However, the counter-intelligence function in SVBR will remain that provoked some controversy among local experts about how possible to implement it without the right information gathering within the country. The main message of these reforms – at the institutional level to prevent the possibility of intelligence agencies to intervene in the internal politics of South Korea.
these changes will be reflected in the structure of the SVBR where there is a discussion about how it should be built a new chain of command.
Note that, despite all attempts to fully suppress the interference in the internal politics of LDCs are yet to fully realize it failed. According to the relevant charges, including interference in the presidential election, still sitting in prison or received suspended sentences and fines of several former Directors of the LDCs and their key aides.
Perhaps the biggest changes will affect all not LDCs, and the Prosecutor’s office. Her work and the ability to conduct investigations will be limited to six areas, including�� corruption, major economic crimes, Subversion, interference in elections, crime in the military-technical sphere and major accidents and disasters.
Note that the powers of the prosecution “cut off” from the other side. Technically already started working on a separate inquiry, which deals with offences among high-ranking officials and politicians. In General, the Prosecutor’s office left work on a number of fronts and mid-level officials.
the Majority selected the Prosecutor’s office and LDCs powers are moving now in favor of the police. She will now start collecting information within the country, investigating activities in favor of North Korea, as well as those crimes that are not included in the scope of responsibility of the Prosecutor’s office.
To prevent excessive concentration of powers the police have, in its structure most of the functions of investigation and management of cases will be delegated from the headquarters to the field – at the levels of major cities and police departments of the provincial level.
these changes are not something particularly new. The President moon Jae-In and his colleagues were trying to implement them from the beginning of 2018, where the main essence was the redistribution of the center of authority from the Prosecutor in favour of the police and the guarantee of non-interference of intelligence agencies in domestic politics. However, many bills were blocked in the Parliament, where the ruling party had a majority.
a Convincing victory of the democratic party “Tabora” in the parliamentary elections of April 15 let the President and his entourage to realize what was previously conceived. Democrats control 176 of the 300 seats in the current Parliament, allowing them to carry out virtually any law without the consent of the opposition, except changes in the Constitution. In this regard, the results of the meeting of 30 July, where the ruling party, the government and the presidential administration, virtually certain to be embodied in the form of new laws and/or amendments. According to the statement of politicians of the ruling party, they are going to do in the next few months.
a Number of opposition politicians, experts criticized innovations, pointing to possible problems in work and to determine which agencies and how to conduct investigations and other activities. Some say that the police and the SVBR will constantly argue and interfere with each other to fight with Pro-North Korean activities within the country that the police simply can not effectively resist the special services of the DPRK that the Prosecutor’s office and police continue to clash, however, the mood in the ruling camp and government shows that the reforms this time will be fully implemented, despite all the potential disadvantages.
