President must repair NIS broken by predecessor
In previous decades, Korea’s top spy agency often pursued the objectives of individual governments and their leaders instead of working for the benefit of the entire nation. Most Koreans thought those days were long gone: sadly they were wrong.
When a female employee of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was caught waging an online slander campaign against the opposition candidate during last year’s presidential election, the NIS said it was personal activity motivated by the woman’s own judgment.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), based on what NIS Director Won Sei-hoon told intelligence operatives during monthly staff meetings over the past two years, said the spy chief has been significantly involved in domestic politics, violating the law that bans such activities.
Quoting the NIS’s own intranet record, Rep. Jin said Won ordered NIS agents to shape public opinion on major issues in favor of the conservative camp; promote the Lee administration’s key policies, including the four-river restoration works and the cancellation of an administrative capital project; and cope with cyber-propaganda from North Korea and its sympathizers in the South.
Surprisingly, NIS officials acknowledged most of these allegations, saying they were necessary to support national security. They accused the opposition lawmaker of distorting and exaggerating the NIS’s activities for political purposes, and lamented the leakage of internal documents.
In this, citizens see a glaring example of the audacity of thieves. Of Won’s three major instructions, one can only agree to the conduct of a cyber war against North Korea as a relevant task, while finding the other two as egregious intervention in politics by siding with the previous administration. What matters is that NIS agents broke laws en masse and at the instruction of its head, not a belated revelation of facts.
We demand Won or any another NIS official explain what relationship there is between the controversial river-refurbishment works or the relocation of government offices with North Korea’s nuclear programs.
All this shows how Won, a longtime confidant of former President Lee, confused national security with preserving the safety of his boss and the administration he led. Won categorized together people or groups opposing Lee, including opposition lawmakers, labor unionists, environmental groups and even Buddhist monks, as pro-North Korea leftists by painting them all red. When Lee named his right-hand man, who was a total stranger to intelligence work, to lead the top spy agency, there were concerns about the NIS becoming the president’s personal agency, misgivings which were proven true.
While the NIS head’s attention went in the wrong direction, the agency’s espionage operations suffered a serious setback, as evidenced by shameful fiascos at home and abroad.
We hope, and believe, that President Park Geun-hye, who lost her father at the hand of his top spy, will not repeat similar mistakes. Park should go further, by ordering thorough investigations into the female operative’s alleged meddling in the election.
The President must be ready to take legal steps against the NIS chief and, if necessary, even ask her predecessor to take responsibility. This is the least she can to do in order to show her resolve not to allow more of the same wrongs.
This is The Korea Times editorial for Wednesday, March, 20, 2013.
