By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye nominated a former senior prosecutor Wednesday as a new deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
There are three deputy chiefs at the NIS and Kim's position is in charge of anti-communist investigation.
According to Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook, Kim Soo-min, who now jointly heads law firm Kim & Jung, was named to fill the void created by the resignation of his predecessor Seo Cheon-ho midway through last month.
Seo stepped down for the spy agency forging evidence in an espionage case to frame a former Seoul city employee as a spy for North Korea.
Kim served as the chief of the Seoul Western District Prosecutor's Office, Busan District Public Prosecutor's Office and Incheon District Prosecutor's Office before beginning his career as a lawyer in September 2009, two months after his retirement.
"Kim has wealth of experience and expertise in the criminal justice field," Min said. "Given that Kim earns full respect and is competent in organization management, the president has picked him."
Since the Park administration was launched in February last year, Seo, a former senior police official, had assumed the job before the forgery scandal.
Due to the scandal, there are growing voices for reforming the spy agency, but whether the nomination of the former anti-communist investigation official will result in the NIS reform remains to be seen because the opposition parties insist that the spy agency be stripped of its authority to investigate and indict in espionage cases.
The forgery scandal had two NIS officers indicted last month, with calls growing for NIS Chief Nam Jae-joon to be dismissed. President Park fell short of sacking Nam, just issuing a warning to him.
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| Kim Soo-min, NIS deputy director |
There are three deputy chiefs at the NIS and Kim's position is in charge of anti-communist investigation.
According to Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook, Kim Soo-min, who now jointly heads law firm Kim & Jung, was named to fill the void created by the resignation of his predecessor Seo Cheon-ho midway through last month.
Seo stepped down for the spy agency forging evidence in an espionage case to frame a former Seoul city employee as a spy for North Korea.
Kim served as the chief of the Seoul Western District Prosecutor's Office, Busan District Public Prosecutor's Office and Incheon District Prosecutor's Office before beginning his career as a lawyer in September 2009, two months after his retirement.
"Kim has wealth of experience and expertise in the criminal justice field," Min said. "Given that Kim earns full respect and is competent in organization management, the president has picked him."
Since the Park administration was launched in February last year, Seo, a former senior police official, had assumed the job before the forgery scandal.
Due to the scandal, there are growing voices for reforming the spy agency, but whether the nomination of the former anti-communist investigation official will result in the NIS reform remains to be seen because the opposition parties insist that the spy agency be stripped of its authority to investigate and indict in espionage cases.
The forgery scandal had two NIS officers indicted last month, with calls growing for NIS Chief Nam Jae-joon to be dismissed. President Park fell short of sacking Nam, just issuing a warning to him.
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