Seoul mayor demands investigation into NIS smear campaign
By Jun Ji-hye
Park Won-soon
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon urged the National Assembly, Tuesday, to investigate allegations that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) carried out a secret smear campaign against him using conservative civic groups.
Park, a presidential hopeful, said in a radio interview that the Assembly should form a fact-finding panel and hold a hearing on the allegations before next year’s presidential election.
The demand came a day after some media outlets reported that the spy agency started activities in 2011 to suppress Park by mobilizing conservative groups, citing an NIS document.
The document was drawn up right after Park was first elected in the by-election of October 2011, according to former NIS officials cited in the reports. After being elected, Park, a former human rights lawyer, gained popularity as a potential presidential candidate.
In 2013, Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) first made such a document public, which led to an investigation of the prosecution. But at the time, prosecutors concluded that it was not a genuine document written by the NIS.
The latest testimony from former NIS officials reversed the prosecution’s 2013 conclusion as they said it was the NIS that created the document.
“It ruined the nation’s democracy and constitutional order,” Park said. “The Assembly should hold a hearing and work to reform the NIS. Otherwise, the same thing will happen to other politicians.”
According to Park, the document contained detailed “strategies to damage the reputation of Mayor Park,” and the strategies have been implemented in reality.
Park cited that the right-wing civic group Korea Parent Federation (KPF) staged rallies against him 19 times and that his planned appearances in the media were canceled for no particular reason.
“There was a TV journalist who confessed the fact that it was difficult for him to follow a direction to deliberately damage my reputation,” he said.
Since April, the KPF has been embroiled in severe controversy over the suspicion that the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) provided funds to the civic group and that the FKI and Cheong Wa Dae used the KPF to orchestrate pro-government, pro-business rallies.
“The most important thing is that content in the document has been taking place in reality,” Park said. “I believe the NIS has been carrying out more underground activities that damage the nation’s democracy, given that it did it to a person who is in a high position such as the mayor of Seoul.”
MPK floor leader Rep. Woo Sang-ho also said the Assembly should deal with the issue seriously and make efforts to prevent a recurrence.
The NIS denied the allegation in a release, saying “The prosecution already concluded that the document was not identical to other NIS documents.”