Police Organize Fact-Finding Team on Historical Truth

The police has decided to include issues such as the assassination of Kim Koo, the dissipation of the Anti-national Activities Special Investigation Committee, the killings of civilians since the independence until the Korean War, partisan liquidation issue, and others as well to the government agency’s independent work of truth-finding of history.

An official at the National Police Headquarters announced the above on September 16 and explained, “We also have reviewed the mistakes made by the military regimes such as the deadly torture of Park Jong-chul and the death of Lee Han-yol, but they were excluded because they were explained through media reports at the time.”

The National Headquarters has recently formed a working-level preparation team with Security Director Chung Kwang-sup as the team leader. The preparation team is composed of 10 members, five from within the police department and five from outside as suggested by the Police Innovation Committee, and will work on launching a “Fact-Finding Team on Historical Truth.”

The police requested civic organizations to join, but they have given negative answers to the requests. Therefore, they decided to form the special team composed of academic personalities such as professors. The police expect that the special team will take charge of the process of deciding investigation subjects, investigation methods, and evaluations.

However, it is almost impossible to know whether or not the investigation can continue since the related records were not kept immediately after the independence, and since it is unclear whether or not they can obtain related witnesses,.

In particular, since many of the cases that the police are trying to investigate are sensitive ones that might cause ideological disputes, it is deemed that it can bring about large-scale effects.

needjung@donga.com