Defense chief apologizes over leak scandal

Minister of National Defense, Shin Won-sik, speaks during a meeting of the National Assembly national defense committee on Thursday. (Yonhap)

Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik apologized Thursday over high-profile allegations that a Defense Intelligence Command official leaked agents’ identities to Chinese hackers earlier this year.

“I would like to apologize to the South Korean people for the public display of the (alleged) leak of military secrets and the bickering that ensued among senior intelligence officials,” Shin said at a National Assembly national defense committee meeting.

At Thursday’s defense committee meeting, Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Kim Byung-joo claimed that the leak that first became known last week had a recent precedent.

“I have been tipped off that a similar leak had also occured last year but that no adequate measures had been taken at the time,” the opposition lawmaker said, citing what he said were confidential sources.

“Perhaps if the leak had been scrutinized properly then, there would not have been a repetition of such a leak at the Defense Intelligence Command,” he said.

Shin said he was not knowledgeable of a prior leak alleged by Kim and deferred a response.

On the same day the minister gave his apology, the Defense Counterintelligence Command sent the officer accused in the leak to prosecutors for violating the laws on the protection of military secrets.

Following the allegations of the leak of identities of agents, a consensus is slowly forming at the Assembly to broaden the laws punishing foreign espionage.

Under the existing laws, the scope of punishable foreign espionage activities is limited to those perpetrated by North Korea only.

Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling People Power Party hosted a forum Thursday for closing the loopholes in the laws to punish espionage against South Korea by foreign entities other than North Korea.

Speaking at the forum, Lee Guk-hyeon, who served as a counterintelligence director at the National Intelligence Service, said these loopholes were being exploited by North Korea.

“North Korea is using spies and informants of other nationalities to work for them, who under the current laws cannot be punished,” he said. “For other countries too, these outdated laws make South Korea a perfect target to spy on.”

Lee said South Korea’s laws relating to foreign espionage were shaped in the days of the Cold War when the “ultimate goal of counterintelligence efforts was to bust North Korean spies.”

“Times have changed but our laws never caught up,” he said, urging legislative changes at the Assembly.

Earlier this week, a bipartisan bill on foreign spies -- advertised by lawmakers who authored them as “South Korean equivalent of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act” -- was introduced.

The bill would require those working on behalf of foreign governments to register with the South Korean government and disclose their names and other information.

By Kim Arin(arin@heraldcorp.com)