The government carried out a major reshuffle of senior police officials for the second half of this year on September 1, appointing South Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency Chief Kim Jong-chul as the Deputy Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency and former Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency Chief Go Beom-seok as the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

This follows the announcement of internal promotions for senior superintendent generals and superintendent generals made on August 12.

To enhance fairness and accountability in police operations, the National Police Agency fully applied the regional restriction system, which bars officials from working in their home regions, to the heads of all 18 provincial and metropolitan police agencies nationwide.

As a result, 14 out of the 18 regional police chiefs, or 78 percent, were replaced.

The replacement rate across all superintendent general positions stands at 81 percent.

Three officials who were promoted to senior superintendent general and assigned to new posts are newly appointed Deputy Commissioner General Kim Jong-chul, newly appointed Seoul Police Chief Go Beom-seok, and newly appointed Incheon Police Agency Chief Yoo Seung-ryeol.

Newly appointed Deputy Chief Kim will serve as the acting Commissioner General of the National Police Agency.

The rank of senior superintendent general sits immediately below the Commissioner General, who holds the rank of commissioner general.

There are seven positions at this rank, including the Deputy Commissioner General, the head of the National Office of Investigation, the chiefs of the Seoul, Busan, Incheon, and Southern Gyeonggi provincial police agencies, and the president of the Korea National Police University.

Newly appointed Deputy Chief Kim previously worked at the Presidential National Crisis Management Center during the Moon Jae-in administration.

Having served as the head of the Public Safety Division at the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency, the Public Safety Division at the South Chungcheong Provincial Police Agency, and the Traffic and Public Safety Division at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, he has headed the South Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency since September of last year.

Newly appointed Seoul Police Chief Go is an expert in security affairs who has served at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Mobile Unit and the Office for Government Policy Coordination's Anti-Terrorism Center.

He was promoted to superintendent general in September of last year and has served as the head of the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency since April of this year.

Newly appointed Incheon Police Chief Yoo previously served as the Investigation Planning and Coordination Officer at the National Office of Investigation.

He has a history of being dispatched to work at the presidential office during both the Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk Yeol administrations.

Go Pyeong-ki, the head of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency who was included in the list of nominees for promotion to senior superintendent general last month, was excluded from this senior superintendent general promotion and instead moved to the post of Director of Public Safety and Traffic Bureau at the National Police Agency.

Some analyses suggest that the false closure of a missing person case in Jeju may have influenced his exclusion from the promotion.

Within the National Police Agency, Kim Sung-jae, head of the Security Intelligence Division at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was promoted to superintendent general and appointed as the spokesperson for the National Police Agency, while Song Yu-chul, head of the Personnel and Training Division at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was promoted and appointed as the Planning and Coordination Officer.

Yoo Yoon-jong, head of the Ulsan Provincial Police Agency, was appointed as the General Affairs and Human Resources Planning Officer at the National Police Agency; Park Hyun-soo, president of the Police Human Resources Development Institute, was named Director of Future Police Policy; Kim Young-keun, head of the Gwangju Provincial Police Agency, was appointed Director of Crime Prevention and Response; and Kim Dong-gwon, head of the Northern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, was named Director of International Police Cooperation.

Specialists in the investigation field were assigned to key positions within the National Office of Investigation to strengthen the accountability of police investigations and on-site investigation capabilities following the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act.

Kim Kwang-sik, chief of the Seoul Gwanak Police Station, and Oh Seung-jin, head of the Investigation Division at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, were both promoted to superintendent general and appointed as the Investigation Planning and Coordination Officer and the Director of the Investigation Bureau at the National Office of Investigation, respectively.

Superintendent General Son Je-han was appointed as the president of the Police Human Resources Development Institute, and Do Jun-su, Director of Future Police Policy at the National Police Agency, was assigned as the head of the Central Police Academy.

Song Byeong-seon, head of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit at the Southern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, was promoted to superintendent general and appointed as the Vice Chief of Investigation at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, while Nam Je-hyun, head of the Central Police Academy, was moved to serve as the Vice Chief of Public Safety.

Newly appointed regional police chiefs include Yang Young-woo for Gwangju, Choi Bo-hyun for Ulsan, Lee Seung-hyeop for Northern Gyeonggi, Kwak Byung-woo for Gangwon, Park Jong-seop for North Chungcheong, Shin Hyo-seop for North Jeolla, Kim Ho-seung for South Jeolla, Park Heon-soo for North Gyeongsang, Lee Jae-young for South Gyeongsang, and Kim Byung-chan for Jeju.

Among them, newly appointed Gwangju Police Chief Yang and newly appointed North Gyeongsang Police Chief Park were promoted to superintendent general and assigned to their posts.

Acting Daegu Police Chief Park Jun-sung, who is acting Director of International Police Cooperation at the National Police Agency, and Acting South Chungcheong Police Chief Lee Seo-young, who is acting Director of Public Safety and Traffic Bureau at the National Police Agency, were also appointed alongside internal promotions to superintendent general.

The National Police Agency plans to further overhaul its personnel system in subsequent appointments by expanding the application of the regional restriction system to key positions, including internal audit and human rights officers at regional police agencies.

(Photo: Yonhap News)