Han Byung-do, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said Tuesday that police would be held "strictly accountable" after a body believed to be that of missing woman Jang Mi-ran was found in Jeju — a case whose missing-person report had been improperly closed as unfounded.
"We will coldly expose what the police did wrong and hold those responsible strictly to account," Han said at a floor strategy meeting at the National Assembly on Tuesday. "We will do everything in our power to draw up a comprehensive reform plan for the police organization and build an investigative system the public can trust."
Han said police must disclose the full circumstances of the false closure — including the chain of command, oversight failures and lines of responsibility — and impose the severest penalties on those involved. "A police force that cannot earn the public's trust has no reason to exist," he said. "Police must win back that trust through bone-deep reform."
He also called on police to produce a fundamental reform plan that the public could accept on its own terms. "I will not allow this case to spread into broader public anxiety and distrust toward the new criminal justice system," Han said. "As police authority has expanded, investigative capacity, accountability, procedural transparency and democratic oversight must all be strengthened further."
Turning to the fallout from Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae's written nomination of Supreme Court justices, Han said "reasonable allegations are being raised" that the government was maneuvering to have the nominations returned so it could restart the recommendation process from scratch and assemble a pool of candidates more to its liking.
He also pointed to what he described as a loophole in the Court Organization Act governing the Supreme Court Justice Recommendation Committee. If a nomination is returned or does not proceed to appointment, the entire committee formation and recommendation process must be repeated, he said. "Any attempt to exploit that legal loophole to manipulate the selection of Supreme Court justices cannot be tolerated," Han said.
Party leader Kim Min-seok had on Monday directed the floor leadership to review amending the relevant provision, saying at a Supreme Council meeting that the legal blind spot — which requires a new recommendation committee to be formed each time justices are nominated — should be revised to prevent such maneuvering.
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