The Defense Counterintelligence Command (DCC; ) is an intelligence organization of the

Republic of Korea Armed Forces The Republic of Korea Armed Forces (), also known as the ROK Armed Forces, are the armed forces of South Korea. The ROK Armed Forces is one of the largest and most powerful standing armed forces in the world with a reported personnel strength o ...

. It was founded as the ''Army Counter Intelligence Corps'' (commonly known as CIC or KACIC; meaning: Special Operation Forces) on 21 October 1950. The DCC is primarily responsible for intelligence missions such as clandestine and covert operation, counterintelligence, defense industry security,

forensic investigation Forensic science combines principles of law and science to investigate criminal activity. Through crime scene investigations and laboratory analysis, forensic scientists are able to link suspects to evidence. An example is determining the time and ...

s, HUMINT, and military security The unit was reorganized into the Defense Counterintelligence Command on 1 November 2022.

History

The Defense Counterintelligence Command was formally activated in October 1977 under the name Military Security Command (MSC; ). This merger of the Army Security Command, the Navy Security Unit, and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations produced a single, integrated unit under the direct command and operational control of the minister of national defense.

Chun Doo-hwan Chun Doo-hwan (; 18 January 1931 – 23 November 2021) was a South Korean politician, army general and military dictator who served as the fifth president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. Prior to his accession to the presidency, he was the cou ...

became chief of the Defense Security Command (DSC; ) in February 1979, eight months before

Park Chung Hee Park Chung Hee (; ; November14, 1917October26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until Assassination of Park Chung ...

was assassinated on October 26, 1979. From his position as commander of the DSC, Chun effectively became chief investigator of the assassination, said Don Oberdorfer in his book ''The Two Koreas''. On December 12, 1979, a group of generals led by Chun arrested martial law commander General Jeong Seung-hwa, the army chief of staff, and seized key sites in the capital. The DSC's involvement in 1979 was considered and defined as attempt of a coup by state council.

Criticism

During the Gwangju Uprising, many plainclothed DSC operatives disguised themselves as protesters to conduct covert operations against civilian militias. Their main objective was arrest and detain militia members illegally and fabricating lies and calumnies about militia to ruin the militia's reputation and make the uprising look like North Korean operatives involved. On November 11, 2011, the Seoul National Labor Relations Commission exposed a DSC member who had been illegally collecting the information of civilians registered in the National Health Insurance Corporation for three and a half years. Before the impeachment of Park Geun-hye on March 2017, the DSC was planning a

self-coup A self-coup, also called an autocoup () or coup from the top, is a form of coup d'état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power illegally through the actions of themselves or their supporters. The le ...

and a declaration of martial law in case the impeachment of

Park Geun-hye Park Geun-hye (; ; born 2 February 1952) is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 until Impeachment of Park Geun-hye, she was removed from office in 2017. Park was the first and to date only woman ...

failed and anticipation of prolonged protests in response. The DSC's self-coup plan document was revealed to the public in 2018.

References

External links

*Globalsecurity.org
Defense Security Command
accessed October 2009 {{Authority control South Korean military intelligence agencies Military units and formations established in 1977 Military units and formations disestablished in 2018 Ministry of National Defense (South Korea) Counterintelligence agencies Gwangju Uprising