South Korea: More police officers assigned to CP teams for Moon & Ahn

SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- Police have assigned more officers to help protect opposition presidential candidate Moon Jae-in and his independent rival Ahn Cheol-soo as the election campaign heats up ahead of the December vote, officials said Sunday.

Police determine the size of the security detail for each candidate after consultation with the campaign offices, and Moon and Ahn had fewer police bodyguards than their ruling party rival Park Geun-hye by choice because they wished to have more contact with voters.

Five more officers have been assigned to Moon and four more to Ahn since early this month as the election campaign heats up. That brings the total number of officers assigned to Moon and Ahn to 20 and 15, respectively, similar to the 20 assigned to Park.

Police plan to provide maximum security for the candidates when official campaigning begins on Nov. 27. The number of officers assigned to the bodyguard team for each candidate could rise to up to 30, officials said.