"Intelligence Service Illegally Investigated More than 20,000 People.. Hwang Kyo-ahn Is Likely to Have Received Reports"

[경향신문]

Kim Kyung-hyup, chairman of the parliamentary Intelligence Committee holds a press conference on the illegal investigation of civilians by the National Intelligence Service during the Lee Myung-bak government at his office in the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul on February 23. National Assembly press photographers

On February 23, Kim Kyung-hyup (Dem.), chair of the parliamentary Intelligence Committee, argued that circumstances suggested that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) illegally investigated more than 20,000 people during the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments and also said that Hwang Kyo-ahn, former leader of the Liberty Korea Party (currently the People Power Party), who served as acting president after the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, probably received reports of the investigation.

This day, Kim held a press conference at the National Assembly and said, “Before the Intelligence Committee the previous day, the National Intelligence Service reported that after searching the NIS data, it discovered documents on personal information from the Park Geun-hye government.”

Kim also argued, “The NIS answers directly to the president, so it is not obligated to report to the prime minister. Nevertheless, the fact that it did report to the prime minister (Hwang Kyo-ahn at the time) suggests that the report may have been made when he was acting president.”

Kim continued and said, “We have yet to identify whether there were further instructions after the report. We have requested them (NIS) to see if there were any instructions.”

Kim also said, “If he received a report on the information from the illegal investigation and failed to take any action, then it is a serious problem.” He stressed, “The statute of limitations has expired for the illegal investigations conducted during the Lee Myung-bak government, but it has not expired for those conducted during the Park Geun-hye government.”

Kim also conveyed details of a report by the NIS from the previous day that there were about 200,000 documents related to the illegal investigations. Kim said, “We believe the illegal investigation was conducted in all areas including lawmakers, local government chiefs, the culture and arts circle, the legal circle, labor, etc.” and added, “When we look at the number of documents on them (people subject to the investigation), there have been as few as three to four documents and as many as over ten documents of personal information per person so far. Supposing that there are an average of ten documents per person, we can estimate that about 20,000 people were subject to the illegal investigations.”

As for the argument by the opposition People Power Party that the National Intelligence Service also conducted illegal investigations during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun governments, Kim refuted, “The National Intelligence Service confirmed that there were no instructions for such investigations in the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun governments.”

Kim said, “In the Kim Dae-jung government, there were public statements against illegal wiretapping and the number of illegal tapping was extremely small in previous governments.” He added, “The NIS director was found guilty at the time because of his responsibility in failing to actively stop this.”

As for the treatment of the illegal investigation documents currently stored by the National Intelligence Service, Kim said, “We asked the National Intelligence Service to clearly identify the truth first, then to give a report to the Intelligence Committee as soon as they collect and sort the scattered information, such as the number of people subject to the investigation, the number of documents, the investigation method, and where the information was used.” He further said, “After this, then we expect to begin discussing the punishment of those responsible and the disposal of the illegal information.”