Prime Minister Creates Police Reform Committee to Steer Accountability and Neutrality

The Prime Minister issued Prime Ministerial Directive No. 953, the Regulations on the Establishment and Operation of the Police Reform Committee, on 17 September 2026, creating an advisory body under the Prime Minister to drive police reform. The directive was published in the Official Gazette (관보) No. 21324, special volume 1, of the same date, and entered into force on the day it was issued.

The directive’s statement of reasons says the government needs to raise the responsibility and professionalism of police investigations, strengthen public-safety capacity, and improve the fairness and neutrality of police work “systematically and efficiently across the whole government.” The committee is advisory in nature: it exists to answer the Prime Minister’s requests for advice rather than to issue binding orders, and it is placed directly under the Prime Minister.

Its remit covers seven areas:

• The basic direction of police reform and major related policies.
• Institutional improvements to police organisation and personnel management.
• The autonomous police system and other public-safety institutional reforms.
• Measures to raise the responsibility and professionalism of investigations.
• Securing the fairness and neutrality of the police.
• Administrative and financial support for police reform.
• Any other matter the Prime Minister considers necessary.

Two co-chairs and up to twenty members

The committee is composed of no more than 20 members, including two chairs. One chair is the Prime Minister; the second is a person designated by the Prime Minister from among the commissioned members. The remaining seats are held ex officio by the Minister of Justice, the Minister of the Interior and Safety, the Minister of Planning and Budget, the Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Minister of Personnel Management, the Minister of Government Legislation and the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, together with the heads of any other central agencies the Prime Minister-chair deems necessary.

Commissioned members are appointed by the Prime Minister from people with substantial knowledge and experience in investigations, public safety, law, administration, and organisation and personnel management. Their term is one year, and a member appointed mid-term to replace a predecessor serves only the remainder of that term. The Prime Minister may dismiss a commissioned member for incapacity, misconduct related to the post, neglect of duty or loss of dignity, or at the member’s own request.

Meetings are convened at the request of at least one-third of sitting members or when the co-chairs agree that one is needed, with a co-chair presiding. A quorum is a majority of members, and decisions pass by majority of those present. The committee may summon officials of central agencies and local governments, staff of public and research institutions, and private experts to give evidence.

Task force and private advisory panel

A Police Reform Task Force (경찰개혁추진단) is established in the Office for Government Policy Coordination to support the committee’s work and operations. Its structure is fixed by the directive:

• Two co-heads, held concurrently by the Deputy Minister for Government Policy Coordination and the Vice Minister of the Interior and Safety.
• A secretary-general, held concurrently by the Director of the Office of Government Operations of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.
• A deputy head, a general-service official belonging to the Senior Civil Service of the same office.
• Task force members.

The co-heads may request the secondment or concurrent service of officials from central agencies, local governments and other bodies, demand the submission of data or opinions, and commission research from experts or institutions within the limits of the budget. A private advisory panel may also be attached to the committee, and commissioned members may sit on it at the same time.

A one-year mandate, extendable

Both the committee and the task force exist for one year from the directive’s effective date, and the Prime Minister may approve an extension. Members, advisory-panel members, officials and experts may receive allowances, travel expenses and other costs within budget limits, except where a public official speaks on a matter directly within his or her own duties. Any operating rules beyond the directive are set jointly by the chairs after a committee resolution.

The directive gives the government a standing institutional channel for police reform that outlives any single investigation or scandal, and it places the Interior Ministry, the Justice Ministry and the National Police Agency at the same table under the Prime Minister’s chairmanship. Because the committee’s mandate expires after one year unless renewed, its practical weight will depend on how actively the co-chairs use it and on the task force’s ability to extract staff and data from the ministries it is meant to scrutinise.

Source: 관보 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Korea), No. 21324 (special volume 1), 17 September 2026, 훈령 (Directives) section, p. 2 (official reference: 국무총리훈령 제953호).