Seoul Cheongjang Acting Director: "Retweet Manipulation Mistake Related to Lee Jeong-hee, Tongjin Party Leader"

Park Hyun-soo, acting commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, explained on the 18th that his retweet of a post stating "Lee Jung-hee, leader of the Unified Progressive Party, not running for office seems to be the result of a politically erratic mistake" during his tenure as head of the New Media Public Relations Division at the Seoul Police Agency was "a button operation error during the testing process after receiving a new smart device."

Lee Kwang-hee, Democratic Party of Korea. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

At the plenary session of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee on the same day, Acting Commissioner Park responded to Rep. Lee Kwang-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea's question about his suspension for retweeting a political comment from 2012 by saying, "I did not write it myself; I retweeted something written by someone else."

Rep. Lee criticized, "The content is hard to find and was a highly sensitive political incident. It undermines the core value of political neutrality in the police organization," and asked, "Did you get promoted rapidly with such a background?"

Acting Commissioner Park replied regarding his rapid promotion, "I have nothing to say separately about personnel matters."

Earlier, controversy arose when Park Hyun-soo, director of the Police Bureau at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, was appointed as the head of the Seoul Police Agency on the 7th. Acting Commissioner Park was appointed to key positions such as the personnel verification team of the Presidential Transition Committee, the National Situation Room of the Presidential Office, director of the Police Intelligence Bureau at the National Police Agency, and director of the Police Bureau at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. It was revealed that Acting Commissioner Park had multiple phone calls with Police Commissioner General Jo Ji-ho, former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, and Police Security Bureau Chief Lim Jeong-ju immediately after the declaration of martial law.