PPP aims to re-empower spies to probe anti-state activities

In his comments at a meeting of the PPP’s emergency steering committee, interim leader Han Dong-hoon said that his party “will pass legislation to restore the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) right to investigate pro-communist activities.”

People Power Party interim leader Han Dong-hoon speaks at a meeting of the party's emergency steering committee at its headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday. [YONHAP]

The leader of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) said Thursday that his party plans to empower the country's spy agency to probe anti-state activities if it wins a majority in the April 10 general election.

In his comments at a meeting of the PPP’s emergency steering committee, interim leader Han Dong-hoon said that his party “will pass legislation to restore the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) right to investigate pro-communist activities.”

The amendment to the National Intelligence Service Act passed by the Democratic Party (DP)-controlled National Assembly in 2021 came into effect this year, transferring the right to investigate violations of the National Security Act from the NIS to the police.

But Han, who served as a prosecutor and justice minister before he took up his current post, said that investigations into anti-state activities “should fall under the purview of intelligence officials and not treated as ordinary criminal probes,” adding that “regular police and prosecutors have difficulty handling matters related to intelligence and espionage.”

The PPP interim leader argued that “most countries entrust anti-espionage operations to their intelligence services” and that his party is in “unanimous agreement” that the NIS should have these powers restored.

Han’s call for the NIS to regain powers transferred only recently to the police appears intended to strengthen his party’s footing on national security vis-à-vis the DP.

Han argued that a DP victory would “open the doors of the National Assembly to former members of the Unified Progressive Party (UPP) and people with espionage convictions,” who he warned would be able to access sensitive information possessed by police, prosecutors, the NIS and the Defense Ministry.”

The DP’s satellite party, which is campaigning for seats elected by proportional representation, includes members of the minor Progressive Party who were formerly part of the UPP.

The UPP was disbanded in 2014 after the Constitutional Court ruled it was an anti-state organization.

In an earlier meeting of the PPP’s emergency steering committee on Monday, Han also said that his party would broaden the Espionage Act to make it illegal to spy for any foreign country instead of the “enemy country” stipulated in the law, which is usually interpreted to refer to North Korea.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Kim Young-joo, who defected from the DP to the PPP earlier in the week, has also previously called for expanding the scope of South Korea’s counter-espionage laws.

The National Security Act, which forbids “praise, incitement or the propagation the activities of an anti-state organization,” is also currently applied against people suspected of conducting pro-North Korea activities.

But its use as a tool of political repression by the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 80s has led liberals to call for safeguards against its abuse or outright abolition.

The NIS, which was known as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) until 1999, has also seen its domestic powers significantly curtailed since South Korea’s democratization in the late 1980s due to the KCIA’s active role in political repression.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]