Gov't to dismantle counterintelligence command that played martial law role, disperse its powers

The government will dismantle the Defense Counterintelligence Command (DCC), the military unit that played a central role in former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law decree on Dec. 3, 2024, and split its main functions among separate agencies.

Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back announced the plan to dissolve and reorganize the command at the Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday.

The command will be dissolved after 49 years. Established in 1977 as a unit integrating the counterintelligence activities of the Army, Navy and Air Force, it was renamed several times under different governments but held on to its place as one of the military's leading power centers.

Under the plan, the command's three core functions — counterintelligence and defense-industry intelligence, security investigations and security audits — will be carried out by new or existing organizations.

The newly created Defense Counterintelligence Headquarters (translated) will take over counterintelligence and defense-industry intelligence work, along with defense-industry security and cybersecurity. Security investigations and the authority to run joint investigations under martial law will move to the ministry's existing investigative headquarters.

A new Defense Security Support Group (translated) will handle security audits and investigations into security breaches at corps-level and larger units.

The command will also lose the powers that long underpinned its influence inside the military. It will no longer monitor the activities of military personnel, collect personnel intelligence or compile reputational assessments, and it will stop gathering information on corruption and other wrongdoing that falls outside counterintelligence.

The overhaul reflects recommendations made in January by a subcommittee on counterintelligence and security reform under a special advisory committee of military, government and civilian officials. Its central aims are to disperse the command's functions and to abolish the contested monitoring role.

Calls to reform the command grew after the martial law imposed by former President Yoon, when the DCC sent troops to the National Assembly and the National Election Commission and took part in organizing teams to detain politicians.

The government concluded that the command's excessively concentrated power and the absence of democratic oversight were at the root of the problem.

The government also plans to tighten internal and external controls over the new counterintelligence headquarters.

A senior auditor from outside the military will serve as its inspector general, and the ministry will set up a dedicated body to command and oversee its counterintelligence, intelligence and security agencies. A compliance and inspection committee made up of civilian experts will be placed directly under the defense minister, and the ministry will draw up basic guidelines for counterintelligence activities and report them regularly to the National Assembly.

The government will also push to enact a law, tentatively titled the Act on the Performance of Duties by Military Counterintelligence Personnel (translated), that would spell out the scope of counterintelligence work and the penalties for illegal acts.

The ministry plans to finish creating the new organizations by the end of next month, after enacting and revising the relevant unit ordinances.

"The plan to reorganize the DCC is not a simple restructuring but a reshaping of the command's structure and mission so that military intelligence agencies can never again intervene in politics," Ahn said.

"It will be a historic watershed in building a military that belongs to the people."

BY PARK JONG-SUH [[email protected]]