By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

The nation's intelligence agency is unlikely to become a means for inter-Korean negotiation and cooperation.

That's the indication being generated after the National Intelligence Service (NIS) did not dispatch its personnel to inter-Korean working-level talks on flood prevention on Oct. 14 and South-North Red Cross talks on Oct. 16.

Under the liberal governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun from 1998 till early 2008, the NIS played a key role as a window for inter-Korean talks, assistance and cooperation. But the NIS appears to be reducing such duties under the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration.

The NIS refused to confirm the report on the revamping of its organization.

But it was reported that personnel analyzing intelligence on the North were assigned to the first department managing international affairs.

Currently, that department is being led by Kim Sook, a former chief negotiator at the six-party talks.

The reorganization reportedly came from the administration's platform to concentrate on intelligence analysis rather than negotiations and cooperative programs.

The agency consisted of three major units dealing with domestic affairs, international issues and North Korean affairs.

The third department had been engaged in official and unofficial dialogue between the two Koreas, inter-Korean cooperative projects and collecting and analyzing intelligence on Pyongyang.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr