Military counterintelligence command to be dismantled over alleged role in martial law bid

SEOUL, June 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military counterintelligence command will be dismantled over its alleged role in former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law bid in 2024, the defense ministry said Wednesday, marking its dissolution 49 years after its establishment.

The Defense Counterintelligence Command will be disbanded and its core functions dispersed to new and existing bodies, the ministry said, in a move aimed at curbing what has been criticized as the command's unchecked authority.

The move came as the command is suspected of having played a key role in Yoon's failed martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024.

Under the overhaul plan, a new Defense Counterintelligence Headquarters will be established under the defense ministry to take over the command's core tasks, including anti-espionage, defense industry intelligence, counterterrorism and cybersecurity, the ministry said.

Another key pillar of its missions, such as running background checks on people of interest, and gathering personnel intel and other sorts of personnel vetting, will be completely abolished.

Those highly clandestine activities have been seen as a factor that contributed to the accumulation of its political power, which critics say falls outside the scope of its duties as a military intelligence agency.

A new body, tentatively named the Agency for Defense Security Support, will be created to handle military security functions, such as conducting security inspections and investigating related breaches or incidents at corps-level units and larger formations.

The authority to conduct national security-related investigations, including the power to conduct joint probes in the event of martial law, will be transferred to the ministry's existing investigation headquarters, the ministry said.

This photo, taken Dec. 9, 2024, shows the front entrance of the Ministry of National Defense compound, where the Defense Counterintelligence Command is located. (Yonhap)