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Acting President Choi Sang-mok shakes hands with Marine Corps Commandant Ju Il-seok while visiting the Joint Chiefs of Staff command and control room on Feb. 7, 2025. (courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense)

Park Hyun-soo, a known ally of President Yoon Suk-yeol who is suspected of having been involved in the attempted insurrection in December, officially assumed the role of acting chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Friday. Despite criticism of Park’s appointment as improper, acting President Choi Sang-mok moved forward with the appointment. 

Choi is legally obligated to appoint Constitutional Court justices, but he has delayed this process. Meanwhile, he has appointed a person who should rightly be investigated for his alleged involvement in an insurrection as the No. 2 cop in the police hierarchy. One cannot help but question the motives at play. 

Directly after the Dec. 3 martial law declaration, Park, who was the chief of the Interior Ministry’s police bureau at the time, spoke twice on the phone with Korea National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho, and twice on the phone with Lim Jeong-ju, who was director of the public order management bureau at the National Police Agency at the time. Lim was responsible for the police barricade around the National Assembly. 

Even after martial law was rescinded, Park spoke with both Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and Cho in respective phone conversations. Park also called the chief of the Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station, who had received requests from the Defense Counterintelligence Command to help arrest people. 

At 11:37 pm, right after the second phone call between Park and Lim (Dec. 3, 11:35 pm), the police implemented a full barricade around the National Assembly. Revealing what Park did on the night of martial law is a crucial part of the investigation into the role played by the police and the Interior Ministry in the insurrection. Park is not someone who should be promoted; he should be investigated. 

Yet Choi railroaded his appointment through. This can only be interpreted as an attempt to influence investigations into himself and other Cabinet members.

“Currently, there is not only a vacuum in the country’s public safety leadership, but there are positions that need to be filled considering the regular appointments that take place around this time of year in order to stabilize national governance. Therefore, I shall appoint positions outside of certain political offices,” Choi said of his choice to make appointments.

If Choi truly wants national governance to stabilize, shouldn’t he fill the vacancies in the Constitutional Court, as he’s legally obliged to do? Several senior positions in the government are being run by acting leaders, including Choi. Why did he appoint a new police chief, a position that’s not even urgent at the present moment? 

Even within the police force, many are openly saying that Park’s appointment was the work of Kim Joo-hyun, the presidential office’s senior secretary for civil affairs and justice 

Throughout the Yoon administration, Park has risen through the big three police ranks (superintendent general, senior superintendent general, chief superintendent general). Other pro-Yoon police officers have also been promoted recently. Some people are calling these Yoon’s “appointments from prison” and an effort to take control of the police before the early presidential election. 

Whether it’s to obstruct the insurrection investigation or prepare for an early presidential election, these appointments are obviously intended to shield Yoon. The person who is ultimately responsible for pushing them through is Choi.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]