First Allowance Paid to Police Officers at District and Substation Deployed for Liberation Day Rally

10,000 Won Per Hour... Checking the List
"Helps Boost Morale"

On August 15, Liberation Day, police erected barricades around Sejong-daero near Gwanghwamun in Seoul to prevent illegal gatherings. The National Revolutionary Party announced that during the three-day Liberation Day holiday, they would conduct the "Moon Jae-in Impeachment 8.15 10 Million One-Person Walking Movement" across downtown areas including Donghwa Duty-Free Shop, Seoul City Hall, and Seoul Station. The police plan to block this, viewing it as an illegal assembly disguised as a one-person protest. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The police have changed internal guidelines to provide allowances to frontline district police stations and patrol officers deployed for crowd control. Officers from district police stations and patrol units at the Liberation Day holiday rallies last month will be the first recipients of these allowances.

According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy on the 8th, the National Police Agency has decided to improve internal regulations to pay security allowances to district police station and patrol officers mobilized to maintain order at rally sites. Since 2005, the police have paid a ‘security mobilization allowance’ separately from overtime pay to officers deployed at large-scale rallies. However, district police station and patrol officers, despite being deployed on site, were excluded from the payment list according to regulations and thus did not receive the allowance.

With the recent regulation change, district police station and patrol staff temporarily assigned as special units for managing large-scale rallies will also be eligible for the related allowances. The allowance is known to be about 10,000 KRW per hour. For example, if an officer worked for 6 hours on the day of the rally, they would receive 60,000 KRW. It is reported that Choi Gwan-ho, Commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, played a leading role in this. He strongly recommended to the National Police Agency that allowances be paid to mobilized personnel as a way to acknowledge the hard work of staff deployed during the Liberation Day rally last month. It is also known that he reviewed this matter while serving as the Planning and Coordination Officer at the National Police Agency before his appointment as Seoul Commissioner.

The first recipients will be officers assigned to manage the Liberation Day rally. On the 15th of last month, the Liberation Day itself, the police deployed about 15,000 officers from 186 units and set up 81 checkpoints, focusing on blocking gatherings. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is reportedly compiling a list of district police station and patrol staff eligible for the allowance. Frontline officers have responded positively. A police official said, "Regardless of the amount, it has symbolic value," adding, "It recognizes the hard work on site, so it will help boost morale."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.