Interior minister says liaison-style policy coordinator will be placed within ministry to work with new agency; calls tobacco tax sunset funds sufficient to cover fire department shortfall

Minister of Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung answers questions at a press briefing held at Government Complex Sejong on Thursday afternoon. [Ministry of Interior and Safety]
Minister of Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung answers questions at a press briefing held at Government Complex Sejong on Thursday afternoon. [Ministry of Interior and Safety]

Minister of Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung said Thursday that a standing council of vice-minister-level or higher political appointees — including the new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency — could be established if needed.

Speaking at a press briefing held at the ministry's press room at Government Complex Sejong, Yun said planning and coordination officials from the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, the Korean National Police Agency and other affiliated agencies had attended an expanded senior staff meeting that day to discuss cooperation frameworks.

"Rather than deflecting responsibility onto one another, what matters is the willingness to take ownership and resolve any case that comes up," Yun said. "It is very important to build cooperative relationships with the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, the Korean National Police Agency and the prosecution from the earliest stage of a case, so we are sharing case information through KICS — the criminal justice portal — and exploring ways to collaborate."

Separately from any new council, internal discussions appear to have advanced on placing a dedicated coordinator within the ministry to liaise with the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency.

Asked whether a dedicated unit would be created to maintain cooperation among judicial agencies, Yun said discussions were ongoing about what form it should take. "There are various matters to handle with the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, so I do think we need to set up some kind of structure," Yun said. "But it will be fundamentally different from the prosecution bureau that sat inside the Ministry of Justice with personnel authority, budget authority and investigative command authority — what we are looking at is a liaison-style policy coordinator."

The briefing also drew a flurry of questions about fire department finances, an issue that came to the fore following the recent on-duty death of a Gyeonggi Province firefighter.

Yun addressed a call by Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae to redirect revenue from the expiring local education surtax on tobacco to fire department funding. Yun said the government had already submitted legislation to convert those sunset funds into a local residential welfare tax to be used for rental and social housing supply, making it difficult to revise the plan.

"If the position is that it should go to fire department finances, we could also look at using part of the residential welfare tax funds," Yun added. "Next year's shortfall in the fire safety grant comes to about 300 billion won ($225 million), while the tobacco tax sunset funds amount to 1.5 trillion won — even splitting that 50-50 would cover more than twice the shortfall, so I think that would be more than sufficient."

Asked about the appointment of a permanent Korean National Police Agency commissioner — a post that has been filled by an acting chief for one year and 10 months since former Commissioner General Jo Ji-ho was suspended from duty in December 2024 — Yun declined to give a direct answer. "Personnel matters are not something I am in a position to comment on," Yun said, while noting that a two-rank promotion to the commissioner general post had no precedent and that the minimum time it had taken to be promoted from senior superintendent general to commissioner general was six months.

Yun, who took office in July last year and is now in the 15th month of the role, was asked whether preparations were underway for a sixth term in the National Assembly. "Isn't that only natural? Being a lawmaker is my main job," Yun said. "I have not set a specific date, but I can continue serving as minister for as long as it does not interfere with running for office."


thlee@heraldcorp.com