Counterintelligence Agency's Job Scope Becomes Clearer

Enforcement of the Revised Military Counterintelligence Command Decree... "Maintaining the '3 Prohibitions' Including Ban on Political Intervention"

The Ministry of National Defense announced the promulgation and enforcement of the "Partial Amendment to the Regulations of the Defense Counterintelligence Command (DCC) of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces," which partially revises the duties and personnel regulations of the Defense Counterintelligence Command.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Ministry of National Defense on the 18th, this partial amendment specifies the scope of duties and the subjects of duty performance of the DCC in consideration of the changing security environment where security and counterintelligence functions within the military are becoming increasingly important. It also adds duties that the DCC has been performing but were previously omitted. The "Three Prohibitions Policy"?which includes "prohibition of political intervention," "prohibition of civilian surveillance," and "exclusion of a sense of privilege"?to prevent abuse or misuse of the DCC's authority remains unchanged.

In particular, the Ministry of National Defense stated that the amendment explicitly lists the target institutions and personnel for intelligence collection, preparation, and processing duties, and formalizes duties such as support for counterterrorism operations that were not included in the previous DCC regulations.

The Ministry further explained, "A new provision has been established allowing the DCC to request the submission of materials from relevant institutions to more legitimately collect data necessary for performing security and counterintelligence duties."

Additionally, the Ministry of National Defense added, "To enable flexible personnel management, the rigid personnel ratio regulations for military personnel and civilian employees belonging to the DCC have been removed, allowing the Minister of National Defense to determine them."

The partial amendment to the Defense Counterintelligence Command regulations can be accessed through the government electronic gazette (gwanbo.go.kr) or the National Law Information Center (www.law.go.kr).