Overview
- The Defense Counterintelligence Command was formally dissolved and replaced by the Defense Counterintelligence Headquarters, the Defense Security Support Group, and a Security Investigation Group under the Criminal Investigation Command.
- The Defense Ministry, which held a public launch in Gwacheon on Monday, said the new headquarters will detect and assess espionage and foreign intelligence threats while protecting defense-industry secrets and military cybersecurity.
- The Security Support Group will handle internal military security tasks such as central security audits of corps-level units and probes of breaches while the Security Investigation Group will have authority to book suspects, conduct searches and pursue national-security crimes.
- Officials framed the change as a break with a politicized past tied to the Dec. 3, 2024 martial law controversy, but experts warn that separating collection, oversight and investigation risks slowing evidence transfers and creating information gaps without formal coordination mechanisms.
- The restructuring removes the DCC's personnel-monitoring and broad investigative powers, shifts many functions under the defense minister's authority, and could prompt further reforms to set standing interagency rules for sharing intelligence with prosecutors, the police and the National Intelligence Service.