National Intelligence Service - Scandals
Controversy is nothing new for the NIS. Over the decade up to 2013, seven out of its 10 directors were either investigated or jailed. In early 2013 Won Sei-hoon, who was appointed director under the Lee Myung-bak administration, faced a similar fate. Many of the crimes former agency directors committed are connected to greed and attempts to please their boss, namely the incumbent President.
During the transitions from the conservative to the liberal governments and vice versa, many talented and experienced agents were sidelined, which weakened the NIS. Whenever there is a shift in power at the agency, the new director sidelines old agents and promotes new ones. This divided the agency and caused disgruntled agents to leak sensitive information to the opposition party and the media.
The NIS domestic division operated a number of cyber operation teams to sway public opinion in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election. An internal probe by the NIS itself found at least 30 such teams worked to influence public opinion from 2009-2012 under the direction of now-imprisoned NIS Director Won Sei-hoon. Each team, consisting of former agents and internet-savvy civilians, was tasked with writing comments and posts in favor of Park Geun-hye -- then the presidential candidate for the conservative ruling party -- and critical of her liberal rival Moon Jae-in. In a tight race, she beat Moon 51-49 in 2012.
Prosecutors indicted former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon for violating the NIS law and the Public Official Election Act, charging that the NIS agents tried to sway voter opinion through more than 22 million postings on the internet, on Twitter, and on other social media sites. The indictment stated the NIS began online activities to influence politics in 2009, and interfered in the 2010 local elections and the 2011 Seoul mayoral election. These activities were, however, outside the six-month statute of limitations for the election law. Authorities indicted at least five other NIS officials on similar charges. Prosecutors indicted former Seoul Metropolitan Police Chief Kim Yong-pan on charges of violating the Police Officers Act and the Public Official Election Act for abusing his authority in hampering a police investigation into the NIS, which led to a police announcement three days before the presidential election that claimed NIS was clear of wrongdoing.
In October 2012 Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook, who was investigating alleged NIS electoral interference, was forced to resign after allegations emerged that he fathered a child during an extramarital affair. In November prosecutors questioned an NIS agent for illegally accessing the personal records of the child’s mother and obtaining personal information. Prosecutors said they believed the NIS leaked this information to a conservative newspaper in order to pressure Chae to resign.
In what many viewed as interference in domestic politics, allegations surfaced during 2012 that the NIS improperly released classified information to the incumbent conservative party during the 2012 presidential election. Critics alleged that the NIS leaked a transcript of a 2007 summit meeting between then president Roh Moo-hyun and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in which Roh reportedly stated that he was willing to adjust a maritime control line – the socalled Northern Limit Line – between South and North Korea. In the 2012 election, the incumbent party used this information to criticize opposition candidate Moon Jae-in, who previously served as Roh’s chief of staff. In June 2012 the NIS released the transcript from its own records.
The National Assembly held a hearing from July 2 to August 23, 2012 on the NIS scandal, but it did not issue an official report because witness testimonies were considered off-the-record and the two major political parties were unable to agree on the wording of a report.
During the October 2012 National Assembly audit of the national government, opposition politicians presented evidence that the Ministry of National Defense (MND) Cyber Warfare Command and the Ministry of Veterans and Patriots Affairs also conducted operations to interfere in election campaigns. An internal MND investigation cleared the Cyber Warfare Command leadership of wrongdoing while asking prosecutors to charge 11 officials of the psychologicalwarfare unit for breach of political neutrality. In response the main opposition political party called for an independent special prosecutor to investigate the entirety of government attempts to influence politics and elections.
Although the requirement that people use their real names when making online postings to large websites was ruled unconstitutional in 2012, the election campaign law still requires real names for internet postings about upcoming elections.
The NIS’ internal probe also found that their agents, under the Lee administration, had participated in a blacklist operation against artists and cultural figures deemed critical of the government. Prosecutors are now looking into the blacklist of such figures, which was created and used to give those on the list disadvantages and remove them from mainstream media.
NIS conducted surveillance of KBS and MBC reporters and executives in an effort to eliminate reports and programs critical of the government. The NIS was in charge of the overall planning in the conservative administration’s attempt to manipulate public broadcasting and devise a road map for the suppression of press-related labor unions. The NIS created a document titled “Strategies and Measures for the Normalization of the MBC” to lay out basic tactics for gaining control over MBC. It said the purpose was to “get rid of left-leaning personnel and problematic programs and marginalize the labor union.”
On 12 December 2013, South Korea's spy agency announced a set of self-reform measures to address opposition demands for a scale-back in its controversial domestic operations that had caused acute political tension between rival parties. The measures, reported to parliament, called for the National Intelligence Service to stop sending agents to monitor the day-to-day activities of the National Assembly, political parties and news organizations, a practice that critics have denounced as unwarranted.
In a hearing of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee on 11 July 2017, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) announced changes in its organization in accordance with a policy of keeping the NIS completely separate from domestic politics and abolishing the position of deputy director of domestic intelligence operations. The NIS had previously been organized in three departments headed by deputy directors: the first was in charge of North Korea and overseas investigations; the second, dubbed deputy director of domestic operations, handled anti-Communist and anti-terror activities; and the third dealt with cyber intelligence and telecommunications. The three departments had now been reorganized into one for overseas operations, one in charge of North Korean affairs, and one counterespionage department.
On 29 November 2017, the National Intelligence Service announced that it submitted the amendment to the National Intelligence Service Korea Act, including a new name - Foreign Security Intelligence Service - to the parliamentary Intelligence Committee. The new bill deleted the term, "domestic security intelligence" and specifically described the tasks of the agency, such as the collection of North Korean intelligence, the response to disturbances in the defense industry and economic security, and the prevention of cyber attacks on state and public organizations. The intelligence agency excluded anti-Communist activities and responses against attempts to overthrow the government from its tasks.
The reform plan faced strong backlash by opposition parties, Thursday, showing little possibility of winning endorsement in the National Assembly. The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) denounced the plan, saying the spy agency is backpedaling on its tasks for protecting national security. "The liberal administration is taking a path to incapacitate the spy agency and give up national security," LKP floor leader Rep. Chung Woo-taik said during a party meeting, likening the plan to an "announcement of disbanding the spy agency."
On 05 December 2017 The Seoul Central Prosecutor’s Office indicted Lee Byung-ki and Nam Jae-joon, who led the National Intelligence Service under the Park administration, on charges of channeling some of the agency’s budget to the presidential office in return for personal favors. Nam was suspected of having paid 50 million won every month, totaling 600 million won, and Lee was suspected of having given 100 million won monthly, totaling 800 million won. The money came from the 4 billion won “special activities fund,” part of the spy agency‘s annual budget, which was not subjected to the parliamentary audit and scrutiny.
On 11 December 2017 prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for former Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan on allegations that he took bribes from the spy agency during the preceding Park Geun-hye administration. Choi, currently a lawmaker of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, was suspected of having pocketed 100 million won (US$92,000) from the National Intelligence Service in 2014.
Investigators believe the money was paid to lobby him for retaining the spy agency's off-book funds when opposition parties pushed to scale them down on the basis of their untraceable nature. Prosecutors obtained testimony from Lee Byung-kee, who was chief of the NIS at the time Choi was finance minister, that he approved the delivery of the money after taking the advice of Lee Hun-soo, a former senior official of the spy agency. Prosecutors believe the payment constitutes bribery as it was paid for lobbying purposes to acquire favors in budget allocations for the spy agency.
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