YOON ON POLICE RESHUFFLE ANNOUNCEMENT

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Police announced new senior superintendents general, only to reverse them the a few hours later. This unheard-of incident is causing quite a fallout. President Yoon Suk-yeol, in outrage, slammed it as a “serious disruption of national discipline” and the ruling party even said that the police had "skipped over” the president. The opposition party claimed that the powers that be had interfered with the personnel shuffle and demanded to find out the truth.

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Two days after the police reversed the announcement of new senior officers, President Yoon Suk-yeol strongly denounced the law enforcement agency. He said the police had announced their choices recommended to the interior ministry without getting the President’s approval.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President) : "It’s nonsense and a serious disruption of national discipline. It’s a preposterous mistake that cannot be made by government workers."

He claimed that the appointment of senior superintendents general has never been overturned and he had only approved of the list provided by the interior ministry. The President dispelled any suspicion that the Presidential Office had invalidated the police’s personnel decisions, thereby emphasizing that the police were responsible for this incident. A key official of the Presidential Office said that the interior ministry must check the facts first, but didn’t reject the possibility that this wasn’t a simple mistake by the police. Since President Yoon regards this incident as a serious disruption of national discipline, those responsible could be reprimanded through internal inspection. The governing People Power Party also sided with those criticizing the law enforcement agency.

[Soundbite] Kweon Seong-dong(Floor leader, People Power Party) : "Police had bypassed the president and interior ministry and announced its senior officer appointments. And this has been corrected."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party saw it as a “personnel disaster” that resulted from the Yoon administration’s attempt to “tame the police” using its right to appoint high-ranking officers. The opposition party members, who visited the National Police Agency to be briefed, announced that something had indeed interfered with the whole process and warned that an internal task force team will be set up to get to the truth.

[Soundbite] Lee Hae-sik(Democratic Party) : "I believe the powers that be had interfered. It is important to find out whether the powers that be are shadowy or not."

Tension between the two opposing parties is mounting as recent controversies related to new police oversight body in the interior ministry and an appointment reversal grows out of control.