INTERNAL FUED OVER NEW POLICE BUREAU

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Disputes continue as the police leaders responded with disciplinary actions and internal investigation to the nationwide senior officers' meeting on Saturday. On his way to work this morning, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min denounced the meeting as a coup d'etat, fueling the conflict inside the law enforcement agency over the establishment of a new police bureau.

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"It's akin to the December 12th coup d'etat." That's what Interior Minister Lee Sang-min told reporters on his way to work on Monday morning, He was commenting on the senior police officers' meeting held to protest the establishment of a new police bureau inside the ministry. Lee said the senior officers directly violated the acting Commissioner's order to disperse and claimed that it was akin to county governors abandoning each of their jurisdictions to attend a meeting. Shortly after the police captain's meeting ended on Saturday, the National Police Agency placed the meeting's organizer, former Ulsan Jungbu Police Station captain Ryu Sam-young, on an assignment waiting list for violating duty of obedience in the State Public Officials' Act. An internal investigation also began on some 50 commanders who attended the meeting.

[Soundbite] Ryu Sam-young(Former Ulsan Jungbu Police Station Chief) : "We met to talk about an important decision for the future of the police. But that was suddenly defined as illegal."

Hostility seemed to intensify in the wake of sudden and harsh disciplinary measures. NPA Commissioner nominee Yoon Hee-keun answered reporters' questions in writing, stating that Ryu was deemed difficult to focus on his job as a police captain because he had violated the code of conduct, adding that the NPA would take measures befitting investigation findings. As Ryu was put on an assignment waiting list, his meeting with Yoon also fell through. Meanwhile, it was proposed that mid-level police officers from across the nation should meet on July 30th. The Police Officers' Council began a one-man protest in front of the NPA building on Monday morning to oppose the disciplinary actions taken against Ryu.