CCT personnel enter a bus, assumed to be carrying dignitaries, to suppress terrorists during an anti-terrorism drill for the APEC Summit at Gimhae Air Base in Busan on the afternoon of the 22nd.

The position of director at the Counter-Terrorism Center, which oversees national counter-terrorism efforts, is vacant ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Gyeongju, according to a report by Segye Ilbo on the 24th (Korean time). 

According to the report, Director Shin Sang-gyun resigned at the end of last month and was discharged from his position early this month, leaving the director post vacant since then.

The Counter-Terrorism Center is an organization under the Prime Minister's Office and is responsible for coordinating the division of duties and cooperative matters related to national counter-terrorism activities. The center also handles tasks such as inspecting the counter-terrorism readiness of relevant agencies and issuing and adjusting terror alerts.

Due to the vacant director position, the Director General for Counter-Terrorism Policy is reportedly acting as the interim head.

The Counter-Terrorism Center maintains that it is carrying out its duties without disruption. 

On the 22nd, an anti-terrorism drill was conducted at Gimhae Air Base in Busan in preparation for the APEC Summit. The drill involved four organizations: the Air Force's 5th Air Force Wing, the Army's 53rd Division, the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, and Gimhae Airport of Korea Airports Corporation. The exercise simulated two scenarios: aircraft hijacking and drone terrorism.

The Counter-Terrorism Center elevated the national terror alert level from "Attention" to "Alert" starting on the 24th. From the 28th, leading up to the summit (November 1st-2nd), and until the conclusion of the meeting, the terror alert level for Gyeongju, the host city, as well as Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, and the entire North and South Gyeongsang Provinces, is planned to be further elevated from "Alert" to "Warning." Terror alert levels are divided into four stages: Attention, Alert, Warning, and Serious, based on the degree of terror threat.

However, criticism has been raised that the absence of a key personnel for national counter-terrorism operations is inappropriate, given that prominent leaders such as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with numerous global business figures, will be visiting Korea for the APEC event.

Some analysts interpret the announcement that President Trump invited President Xi Jinping to Busan for a bilateral meeting on the 30th as being due to security concerns. This perspective includes the notion that the absence of the Counter-Terrorism Center director is also a contributing factor.

Furthermore, the disappearance of six Chinese nationals who entered Korea visa-free through Incheon Port has become a subject of controversy. With one of them being apprehended in Gyeongju, the security issues surrounding the APEC event are now under scrutiny.

The Special Investigation Unit for Immigration at the Seoul Immigration Office arrested four of the six Chinese nationals who had boarded the cruise ship 'Dream' and entered Incheon Port on September 29th, but the whereabouts of the remaining two are still unknown.

Meanwhile, according to state audit data submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Justice on the 21st, the number of illegal foreign residents in the Jeju region increased by 2,200 (26%) from 8,500 in 2022 to over 10,700 in August of this year. Chinese nationals account for 85% of this increase.

By Hong Seong-gu, Chief Editor, NNP US / Special Correspondent, NNP info@newsandpost.com