South Korea's presidential office, the government and the ruling Democratic Party(DP) have agreed to establish a state investigative control tower as part of a police reform drive to decentralize power.

Under a set of reform measures announced on Monday, the three parties said police investigations will be led by bureau chiefs under the command of the head of the new control tower who will serve a three-year term.

Top-ranking police officers, including the commissioner general, will be in charge of security and administrative affairs and restricted from directly overseeing investigations.

Laws will be revised so that police officers handling intelligence will be banned from conducting illegal surveillance and intervening in politics.

DP policy chief Rep. Cho Jeong-sik said the move is aimed at preventing senior officers from inappropriately interfering in investigations and the political arena. 

The three sides also agreed to kick start test operations of an autonomous police system, where authority over public security-related affairs will be transferred from the state police agency to provincial governments.