Truth and Reconciliation Commission Begins Investigation of Police Director Kim Sun-ho Claiming 'Recording Operation Damage'

Kim Sun-ho, the inaugural Director of the Police Bureau, is moving to attend a press briefing held at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Police Bureau located in the Government Seoul Office Building on the 2nd. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The 2nd Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Past Affairs (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) has decided to investigate whether Police Director Kim Sun-ho was a victim of the recording operation project.

On the 29th, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission held its 46th committee meeting in the main conference room of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at Namsan Square Building, Jung-gu, Seoul. At the end of the meeting, the commission decided to initiate an investigation into Director Kim's request for truth verification.

Director Kim is suspected of having been forcibly conscripted as a target of the past recording operation project and then acting as an informant. The recording operation project refers to the forced conscription of students involved in student movements during the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan regimes, who were then coerced and persuaded to collect information within schools.

In August, the Coalition of Organizations for the Memorial of National Democratic Martyrs and Victims (Memorial Coalition) applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for truth verification regarding the allegations against Director Kim. In response, Director Kim also applied to the commission for truth verification, claiming he was a victim of the recording operation project. With the decision to commence investigation on Kim's application, it is expected that the truth verification will be completed as early as the beginning of next year.

Director Kim was appointed as the inaugural director of the Police Bureau under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in July. In August 1989, he was specially recruited (career competitive recruitment) as a sergeant, recognized as a "person with specialized knowledge related to security work" under the Police Officer Act and the Police Officer Appointment Decree. Some have raised suspicions that the reason Kim, who was active in the Incheon-Bucheon Presbyterian Democratic Workers' Association (Innohoe), was specially recruited as a police officer was because he informed on his colleagues.