Intelligence agency officer detained
Kim Won-ha, a key collaborator of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), sits in a vehicle heading to the Seoul Detention Center in Euiwang, Gyeonggi Province, in this photo taken March 12. He was arrested Saturday on charges of fabricating a “private document” presented as evidence to an appeals court in an espionage case. / Yonhap
Key NIS collaborator also put in custody
By Nam Hyun-woo
A special prosecution team said Sunday that it has detained a covert operations officer of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) for involvement in the alleged fabrication of documents presented as evidence to an appeals court in an espionage case.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said the officer, only identified by his surname Kim, was taken into custody Saturday night and has since been questioned on charges including ordering the document forgery.
Prosecutors said they will seek an arrest warrant from a court in order to question him further.
The detention came shortly after Kim Won-ha, 61, a key collaborator of the NIS, was arrested Saturday after the same court issued a warrant charging him with forging a “private document.”
The document is one of three Chinese government documents suggesting Yu Woo-sung, the suspect in the espionage case, had entered North Korea through China several times. Yu’s lawyers, however, claimed they were fabricated and the Chinese government confirmed that they were fakes.
Yu was acquitted of spying charges by a lower court, but prosecutors appealed the verdict.
According to the team, the officer asked Kim Won-ha to obtain the document last December in order to rebut the lawyers claim that Yu’s travel record to the North, the first one of the three documents, was forged.
It suspects that the NIS collaborator entered China and created the document after securing a seal from a Chinese travel office.
As to the reason for issuing the arrest warrant for Kim Won-ha, Judge Um Sang-pil said, “There is probable cause to believe the crime was committed by him.”
He was initially detained last Wednesday, and prosecutors sought the warrant Friday to question him longer.
Kim Won-ha attempted to commit suicide earlier this month, and in a note he left blamed the spy agency for not “protecting him.”
He reportedly reiterated his previous statement that he was involved in the fabrication and the NIS was aware of this. He also claimed he did so to prove that Yu was guilty of espionage.
As the officer has been detained, his testimony will be key to finding out to what extent the NIS was involved.
Since he was allegedly behind the document forgery from the beginning, the prosecution suspects he knows whether the agency ordered Kim Won-ha to create the document and who orchestrated the operation.
Also cornering the NIS is Kim Won-ha’s suicide note. In it, he told his son to demand that the NIS pay 6 million won in overdue wages, and 10 million won for his forging of the documents. Though the NIS explained the documents were different from those related to Yu’s case, the special team suspect that they could be the same.
Before arresting Kim Won-ha, it questioned Lee In-chul, another NIS officer dispatched to the Korean consulate in Shenyang, northeastern China. Lee received the documents from Kim, authorized them and sent them to the prosecution.
During the investigation, Lee reportedly confessed that “I authorized the fake documents due to repeated orders from NIS headquarters.”