[Editorial] All that politics

Two controversial cases – each involving the police and the top spy agency -- illustrate how Korea’s powerful agencies, including law-enforcement authorities, are swayed by domestic politics.

The first case concerns the death of an activist farmer who died about one year ago after being hit by a police water cannon. The turn of events surrounding Baek Nam-ki is truly dramatic.

Baek, then 68, fell unconscious in November 2015 after he was directly hit by a police water cannon during a violent anti-government demonstration. Before he died, he had been in a coma for more than 10 months.

Police insisted that their action was a legitimate exercise of police power and they abided by guidelines for using water cannons to suppress violent demonstrators. Doctors at Seoul National University Hospital backed up the police claim as they certified that Baek died from an illness.

His death became a sensitive political issue with Baek’s family members and dissidents demanding a fair probe into the case and punishment of those responsible for the death of the activist, which they saw as the result of the use of excessive police force. Baek had become a sort of martyr, but most of their claims were buried under the ignorance of police and government under the Park Geun-hye government.

Then the tide turned with the unexpected fall of the Park government and the inauguration of the liberal President Moon Jae-in administration.
The SNU Hospital acted first, changing Beak’s cause of death to “external cause. ”Police also made an about-face, offering apologies to the bereaved family members, and a police commander who supervised the water cannon vehicle that operated the high-pressure jet on the day accepted liability over a damages suit filed by the family members.

Then the state prosecution stepped in, indicting early this week four police officers -- two operators of the vehicle and their supervisors including the field commander -- on charges of negligent homicide. The key argument of prosecutors was that the officers failed to observe the rules that prohibit firing water cannons at a person above the chest. Prosecutors said Baek was hit in the head.

All these developments should bewilder not only the officers who were in the line of duty, but also many others. What happened is simple: A man died after being struck by a water cannon during a violent clash with the riot police. But the same case which was the legitimate exercise of police power in the previous government is now regarded as a criminal act that could send police officers into jail.

Needless to say, police officers, like anyone else, should not break whatever law it may be and they should receive due punishment if they violate the law, rules and even their own code of conduct. What’s more important, however, is that judgement on a case of police brutality should be made only on the basis of facts and the law, not by which government is in power.

The second case involving the National Intelligence Service also testifies to the shameful legacy in our society, i.e, abuse of powerful agencies by the government in power.

Since Moon’s inauguration, the NIS is under massive investigation by its internal team and the state prosecution over various misdeeds it committed during the past conservative governments of Park and her predecessor Lee Myung-bak.

The list of the cases under scrutiny is truly long: NIS agents operated covert cyberteams to support rule of conservative governments, helped the government put public broadcasters under its influence, conducted surveillance on opposition members and blacklisted celebrities and cultural figures critical of the government.

Then came the shocking revelation that the NIS sent a petition to the Nobel Committee to withdraw the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to former President Kim Dae-jung in 2000.

The Baek Nam-ki case and the ever-growing list of misdeeds committed by NIS agents tell us that it might be a daydream to cut off the shameful tradition of the government using powerful agencies as their governing tools.