By Kim Da-ye
Prosecutors indicted a National Intelligence Service (NIS) covert operations officer and his civilian collaborator, Monday, for fabricating evidence in an espionage case.
The agent known as "Mr. Kim" was indicted on six counts of "maliciously" forging several documents used in a prosecutorial appeal against a not guilty verdict for former Seoul city government official Yu Woo-sung.
His 61-year-old informant, also identified as Kim, was indicted on four charges of document fabrication.
The case was allocated to the three-judge panel of the criminal division at the Seoul Central District Court. The panel is led by Presiding Judge Kim Yong-gwan, who made rulings on CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun and LIG Group Chairman Koo Cha-won.
The prosecution will pursue the charges under the criminal code, not under the National Security Law. The latter punishes those who have made up evidence to falsely accuse someone of threatening the security of the state.
Yu, an ethnic Chinese who came to Korea as a North Korean defector, was accused by the NIS and prosecution of being a spy for Pyongyang. He was cleared of espionage charges at a lower court, but the prosecution appealed to the high court, presenting "documentary evidence" that he travelled to North Korea multiple times.
Prosecutors found that to produce the new evidence, "Mr. Kim" cooperated with other NIS officials and paid civilian informers, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The NIS agent obtained Yu's travel records from a government office in Helong in Jilin Province via his informant illegally. To cover up the manner in which the document was acquired, the agent and a fellow NIS officer identified as Kwon had a statement from the Helong authority forged by an unknown person. The statement confirmed that the local government officially issued the travel records.
Mr. Kim and Kwon faxed this forged statement to the Korean consulate in Shenyang in northeastern China, disguising as the Helong authority and using its fax number.
The officer also forged two statements from a Chinese checkpoint at the border between China and North Korea in cooperation with his civilian informant, Kim.
The statements intended to refute the statement that Yu's attorneys obtained from the same checkpoint that helps prove he did not enter North Korea multiple times. One of them stated that the attorney's document was illegally issued.
Prosecutors found that the informant kept communicating with Mr. Kim regarding the need to forge the documents and pay the forger.
Mr. Kim has also been charged for collaborating with Kwon and Lee, an NIS-dispatched consul at the Korean consulate in Shenyang. Lee issued a consular certificate confirming the authenticity of the documents without verifying it with the Chinese checkpoint.
Mr. Kim and his civilian informant collaborated again to fabricate another document, which wasn't used as evidence against Yu.
While the indictment of the NIS agent and his collaborator reveals several NIS agents' awareness of the forgery, it showed that prosecutors have yet to find any involvement of senior officers or systematic organization by the agency.
Prosecutors indicted a National Intelligence Service (NIS) covert operations officer and his civilian collaborator, Monday, for fabricating evidence in an espionage case.
The agent known as "Mr. Kim" was indicted on six counts of "maliciously" forging several documents used in a prosecutorial appeal against a not guilty verdict for former Seoul city government official Yu Woo-sung.
His 61-year-old informant, also identified as Kim, was indicted on four charges of document fabrication.
The case was allocated to the three-judge panel of the criminal division at the Seoul Central District Court. The panel is led by Presiding Judge Kim Yong-gwan, who made rulings on CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun and LIG Group Chairman Koo Cha-won.
The prosecution will pursue the charges under the criminal code, not under the National Security Law. The latter punishes those who have made up evidence to falsely accuse someone of threatening the security of the state.
Yu, an ethnic Chinese who came to Korea as a North Korean defector, was accused by the NIS and prosecution of being a spy for Pyongyang. He was cleared of espionage charges at a lower court, but the prosecution appealed to the high court, presenting "documentary evidence" that he travelled to North Korea multiple times.
Prosecutors found that to produce the new evidence, "Mr. Kim" cooperated with other NIS officials and paid civilian informers, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The NIS agent obtained Yu's travel records from a government office in Helong in Jilin Province via his informant illegally. To cover up the manner in which the document was acquired, the agent and a fellow NIS officer identified as Kwon had a statement from the Helong authority forged by an unknown person. The statement confirmed that the local government officially issued the travel records.
Mr. Kim and Kwon faxed this forged statement to the Korean consulate in Shenyang in northeastern China, disguising as the Helong authority and using its fax number.
The officer also forged two statements from a Chinese checkpoint at the border between China and North Korea in cooperation with his civilian informant, Kim.
The statements intended to refute the statement that Yu's attorneys obtained from the same checkpoint that helps prove he did not enter North Korea multiple times. One of them stated that the attorney's document was illegally issued.
Prosecutors found that the informant kept communicating with Mr. Kim regarding the need to forge the documents and pay the forger.
Mr. Kim has also been charged for collaborating with Kwon and Lee, an NIS-dispatched consul at the Korean consulate in Shenyang. Lee issued a consular certificate confirming the authenticity of the documents without verifying it with the Chinese checkpoint.
Mr. Kim and his civilian informant collaborated again to fabricate another document, which wasn't used as evidence against Yu.
While the indictment of the NIS agent and his collaborator reveals several NIS agents' awareness of the forgery, it showed that prosecutors have yet to find any involvement of senior officers or systematic organization by the agency.
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