The Defense Counterintelligence Command (DCC; ) is an intelligence organization of the
Republic of Korea Armed Forces. 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 investigations, 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 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