Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

37°34′29″N 126°58′20″E / 37.574651°N 126.972209°E / 37.574651; 126.972209

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA; Hangul: Korean: 서울지방경찰청; Hanja: 서울地方警察廳) is the primary police force for the South Korean capital city of Seoul; it is not an independent police force in of itself, but is one of 16 provincial sub-divisions of the National Police Agency. The SMPA is headquartered along with the National Police Headquarters in Seoul itself.^[1] While modern police agencies of Seoul can trace their history back to 1945 with the creation of a Korean police force, the modern-day Metropolitan Police Agency in Seoul came into being on August 1, 1991 and currently polices over 10 million inhabitants.^[2]