Kim Sun-ho's Rapid Promotion... Informant Operation Victim Says "It's Absurd"

Police Commissioner Kim Sun-ho Promoted, Accused of Being a Prakchi
Suspected of Informing on Innohoe Fellow Officers
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Recognizes 187 Prakchi Operation Victims
Vice Chair Lee Hyung-sook Calls It "Secondary Harm to Victims"

Kim Soon-ho (59), who was promoted at lightning speed to the position of Commissioner General, the second highest rank in the police hierarchy after the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, met with reporters after the 5th meeting of the Police System Development Committee held at the Government Seoul Office Building on the 20th. Photo by Yonhap News

Kim Sun-ho (59), the inaugural director of the Police Bureau who is embroiled in 'frakchi (informer) suspicions,' has been promoted two ranks in six months, becoming the 'number two' next to the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency. Victims who suffered from the informer coercion operations during the authoritarian regimes expressed disappointment at Director Kim's rapid rise.

On the 20th, the government announced personnel promotions elevating Kim Sun-ho and Jo Ji-ho (54), director of the Public Safety Information Bureau of the National Police Agency, from Police Superintendent General to Police Commissioner General. Kim, who was promoted from Police Superintendent to Police Superintendent General in June, has achieved another rapid promotion within six months. Although Kim is not a graduate of the Korean National Police University, he is regarded as a figure aligned with the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s policies, having been appointed as the first director of the Police Bureau in July.

However, there is criticism that promoting Kim, who is involved in the forced conscription of university students and informer coercion operations (frakchi operations), at such a rapid pace is inappropriate. From 1971 to 1989, the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan regimes forcibly enlisted protesting university students or coerced them into becoming informers as part of frakchi operations.

On the 23rd of last month, the 2nd Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Past Affairs (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) analyzed 2,417 individual personal records transferred by the Military Security Support Command to the National Archives and recognized 187 people as victims of the frakchi operations. Although the Truth and Reconciliation Commission did not immediately recognize Kim as a victim, his name was included on the list of subjects for guidance. At the end of August, Kim himself applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for truth verification, claiming to be a victim.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, suspicions have continuously been raised that Kim was not merely a victim but also played the role of a perpetrator. Kim was active in the Incheon-Bucheon Non-regular Workers’ Democratic Labor Association (Innohoe), but is suspected of betraying his colleagues and, as a result, was specially recruited by the police in August 1989. Victims also claim that he acted as an informant, actively reporting on university circle activities to the police. It is known that Kim excluded this part when applying for truth verification with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The victims expressed despair, calling the situation "absurd." Jo Jeong-ju, secretary-general of the Forced Conscription Recording and Guidance Operation Truth Verification Promotion Committee, who was active in Innohoe in the past, said, "This personnel appointment clearly shows the essence of the current government. It avoids reconciliation with the past." He added, "Kim is a figure who claims to be a victim without resolving the informer suspicions at all. It is extremely unpleasant that such a person has been rapidly promoted." Lee Hyung-sook, vice-chair of the Memorial Solidarity Truth Verification Special Committee, said, "This personnel appointment is a secondary harm to the victims of the frakchi operations. I thought we had become a democratic country, but this is disappointing news in many ways."

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