Terrorism has become one of the major issues that constantly draw media attention in the world of today, since it is a new factor that threatens national security in the 21st century. The very terrorist attack that occurred on the 11th of September, 2001 in particular was so destructive that it is considered to be tantamount to an act of war in terms of its effect on the entire nation and whole society. Furthermore, the so-called 9/11 symbolizes all the more conspicuously the destruction of human civilization and the intensification of the feeling of terror that remains immanent deep inside of the human mind. The international community, therefore, intends to reach consensus and come up with various efficient measures aimed at preventing terrorism. As these measures may be categorized into the group of laws and that of policies and be explained as such, I would rather focus on the former in this study .
First of all, the UN adopted the resolutions #1368 and #1373 on the 12th of September, 2001 to define terrorism as a major threat to the world peace and make it imperative to block the funding of terrorist organizations and the provision of their logistics. In the same vein, the US passed a bill, entitled USA Patriot Act 2001, on the 19th 0f September, 2001 in order to enhance counter-terrorist operations of investigation agencies, while Japan enacted a law that penalizes the funding of criminal acts against the public in 2002. France had already established a law (LOI 86-120, also known as 09 Septembre 1986 LOI relative a la lute contre le terrorisme et aux atteintes a la sureté de I'Etat) on the 9th of September, 1986.
The main content of such bills and laws overseas is as follows: Firstly, definition of terrorism and designation of terrorist organizations; Secondly, supervision over terrorist suspects and enhancement of investigative powers; Thirdly, strengthening of customs service in terms of security at the airport and seaport; Fourth, vigilance over money laundering of foreign funds and terrorist funds; Fifth, sharing of information and reorganizing of counter-terror agencies; Sixth, stricter punishment of terrorists; Seventh, enlargement of jurisdictions.
In Korea, as well, anti-terrorist bills were presented to the National Assembly in November, 2001, March, 2005, and October, 2008. They, however, ended up exposing some of their limitations: Firstly, possible infringement on human rights by those bills. Secondly, question of the mobilization of regular armed forces. Thirdly, monopolization of powers by specific State agencies. This study intends to allow these matters to be discussed reasonably and systematically, so as to come up with their improvement measures. For that purpose, this study suggests that the function of checks and balances be re-established amongst State agencies and the respect of basic human rights be re-enforced by enacting such laws aimed at controlling abuse of power or arbitrary execution of State powers.