Behold: Somebody Is Watching You

By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

The scrutiny of citizens' phone conversations, e-mail correspondence and articles posted on Internet community boards by police, the prosecution and the state spy agency was more intense than ever during the second half of last year, according to a coalition of liberal civic groups, Monday.

The coalition said the number of phone numbers and Internet log-on IDs that communication services providers handed over at the request of investigative bodies increased nearly 67 times, compared with the same period in 2008.

This claim was based on the 2009 Annual Report from the Korea Communications Commission, which governs 163 communication services providers around the country, the coalition said.

Roughly 15.77 million telephone numbers and Internet IDs were given to the authorities during the second half of last year alone, up from 236,782 during the same period in the previous year, it said.
More than 90 percent of requests were made by the police, it said, followed by military investigation units.

On the reason for the steep increase, Oh Seung-jin, a senior officer of the National Police Agency, said, "Our demand for such information surged during the period due to the emergence of new types of crimes using telecommunications and the Internet."

The officer stressed the NPA had played by the rules when accessing private information. Under the law, court approval is a prerequisite to monitor phone correspondence and secure Internet IDs.

Tip of the Iceberg

The National Intelligence Agency was ranked first in seeking court approval for monitoring phone conversations with 2,984 phone requests during the period, far higher than the police with 90, and military investigation units, 21.

Human rights advocates and liberal activists claim that the statistics disclosed is the tip of the iceberg of what they are actually monitoring. They say investigators have often ignored the law for "arbitrary and extensive" monitoring of targeted individuals or groups.

For instance, they said, on May 7 last year, intelligence agents and investigators raided the house of Lee kyung-won, a key member of a progressive civic group, and took him to a prosecution office for alleged "subversive" activities. They also ransacked 23 other locations associated with the group on the same day.

The prosecution indicted Lee and two aides in July last year on charges of contacting intelligence agents of North Korea several times during their visits to Pyeongyang between 2003 and 2009. It is strictly prohibited for South Korean citizens to meet North Korean spies.

Lee denied the allegations, saying he met North Korean officials, not spies, to discuss cultural exchange programs at a civilian level.

But the prosecution refuted it by showing documents containing records of his phone and fax correspondence with North Korean agents over the past seven years. Submitting them to the court as evidence, the prosecution admitted it had screened Lee's phone calls, faxes and e-mail accounts.

This acknowledgement set off a fierce backlash from human rights advocates and progressive activists. Affected people claimed the authorities had monitored their telecommunications for investigation, but had never informed them of it afterward.

"I was informed of it after being indicted," Lee said. "I was surprised to know that virtually all my life had been exposed to the prosecution because I worked at a progressive group."

The activist said that phone monitoring and "transmission grabs" or other spying activities should be allowed to strike down terrorism plots and acts of massive sabotage, but these activities only for limited periods justified by concrete and creditable evidence.

"The invasion of my privacy was based on their belief that I 'probably' had engaged in pro-North activities," he said. "This is an act of infringement upon my freedom, which is unconstitutional."

Lee filed a petition with the Constitutional Court last November to see whether the activities targeting him for the past seven years were justifiable under the Constitution.

Currently, a bill toughening investigation guidelines that should be followed for the use of invasive techniques is pending at the National Assembly ㅡ with bipartisan support.

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