Subtitled News: First 'Gender-Integrated' Recruitment for Police Officers Sees Shift in Results... How Does the National Police Agency Respond to Concerns Over Field Response?

In the first half of this year, nearly 4 out of 10 successful candidates in the open competitive recruitment examination for police officers were women.

The National Police Agency announced that out of 2,941 final successful candidates for the first half of 2026, 1,112 were women, accounting for 37.8% of the total.

Men accounted for 1,829, or 62.2%.

The total number of applicants was 29,972, with men making up 62.9% and women 37.1%, which the police explained showed little difference from the gender ratio of the final successful candidates.

This exam marked the first time in the history of police officer recruitment that a "gender-integrated selection method," which selects candidates without separating them by gender, was fully implemented.

Previously, police recruitment had set separate quotas for men and women, and the female selection rate typically hovered around 20%.

However, with the first integrated selection this year, the proportion of female successful candidates has nearly doubled compared to the past.

Yoo Jae-sung, Acting Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency, explained the cause of this phenomenon during a regular press briefing today (June 22), stating, "There was an aspect where competition was fiercer because the number of female recruits was limited."

In fact, over the past three years when gender-separated selection was in place, the competition rate for women was up to 2.5 times higher than that for men.

Regarding the outlook for an increase in female police officers, Acting Commissioner General Yoo said, "The proportion of women among the entire police force is 16.7%," adding, "It will likely rise a bit more in the future."

The passing rate for the circular physical fitness test, which drew attention, was 88.6% for men and 42.5% for women, with an overall passing rate of 63.9%.

In response to concerns that an increase in female successful candidates might limit the ability to exercise physical force in the field, such as subduing criminals, the National Police Agency stated, "We will continuously monitor the situation to ensure there are no public concerns," while also adding, "If such concerns manifest in reality or if serious problems arise, we will carefully review institutional improvements."

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Lee Ui-seon | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.