Lawmakers of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) seldom express objections ― even privately ― to President Lee Myung-bak's choices to lead major government agencies.
Not so with Won Sei-hoon, Lee's pick for the National Intelligence Service (NIS): Disgruntled voices are being heard at GNP headquarters saying, ``The NIS director-designate doesn't look like a man suited for leading today's intelligence agency,'' or, ``If I were the president, I wouldn't have made such an appointment."
That Won has never been an intelligence officer in his entire bureaucratic career of 30 years but served as an administrator may not necessarily be a decisive factor to disqualify him from taking the top spy's job, as a ``non-company man'' sometimes proves to be more effective in rectifying an organization's problems, of which the NIS has many.
Even the fact that the 58-year-old minister of government administration and safety is the right-hand man of President Lee should not be so definitive a drawback as to exclude him from possible candidates. Because of the very nature of the agency he is supposed to lead, it requires almost absolute trust of the top leader.
Rather, Won himself has shown why he should not serve as the chief of the former Korean CIA. At the National Assembly's hearing, Won told lawmakers he would readjust the NIS's range of activities to a ``realistic level,'' and that it was inevitable to gather ``political intelligence.'' Presuming the two matters are interconnected, this is tantamount to a declaration for the agency to resume the espionage on political opponents rampant under the military rulers decades ago.
Add to these another government-proposed bill to allow eavesdropping on cell phone conversations of people without warrants, and the nation will go back to the good old days ― for the agents of course ― of the 1960s and '70s.
Won cited the possibility that the North Korean agents could infiltrate into the political community. If the Northern spies could crack the nation's most privileged and powerful group, there would remain no sectors in this country free from Pyongyang's ``evil' influence," meaning it should restore domestic spying to a full scale, the reasoning might go like this.
True, spy agencies of most countries are reforming themselves to better suit the changing global political and economic environment, stepping activities in such new areas as counter-terrorism activities, industrial espionage, disaster prevention and even pandemic controls. The NIS, on the other hand, has moved backward in recent years by, for instance, meddling in the replacement of the chief of the nation's largest public broadcaster, calling for regional chapter of the Ministry of Labor Affairs to report on proceedings of wage negotiation at major companies and even asking about the progress of lawsuits related with the President's suspected irregularities in campaign funding.
A new NIS chief should be the person who can persuade his boss to resist the temptation to use the state spy agency for political purposes. Given Won's plans and his relationship with President Lee, however, the intelligence-chief designate is more likely to lure ― if not entirely intentionally ― his appointer to this undesirable situation.
Any agency or its chief wanting to wield authority prone to abuse of power should be ready to take limitless responsibility. If not, the organ should reform itself first under a more reasonable leadership.