Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Spy agency official's sudden resignation sparks speculation
National Intelligence Service (NIS) headquarters / Courtesy of NIS
By Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
President Yoon Suk-yeol dismissed speculation over the abrupt resignation of Jo Sang-jun, head of planning and coordination at the National Intelligence Service (NIS), who is known to be a close confidant to the president.
“It is difficult to disclose the reason for Jo's resignation because it is a personal matter,” Yoon told reporters, Thursday when asked about Jo's resignation. “I accepted his resignation because he showed his intention that it will be difficult for him to continue serving, which is very important and burdensome. If it were to be a public matter, we could have told you, but it was a personal matter.”
President Yoon Suk-yeol enters his office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
According to the spy agency and the presidential office, Jo showed his intention to resign to a presidential secretary on Tuesday, which was reported to both Yoon and NIS Director Kim Kyou-hyun. As Yoon accepted his resignation, the NIS director upheld this so as to relieve Jo from his duties, which took effect on Wednesday.
The resignation sparked several rumors and speculation because it was only back in June that Jo took the role, which is responsible for managing the internal affairs of the spy agency. He was supposed to attend a National Assembly audit regarding the NIS on Wednesday.
Jo is a former senior prosecutor, who served as head of the criminal division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in 2019 when Yoon was the prosecutor general. After leaving the prosecution in July 2020, he became an attorney for the law firm Yulwoo. During this period, he served as the legal representative for Yoon's wife Kim Keon-hee.
In this context, therefore, Jo was regarded as one of the closest confidants to Yoon among prosecutor-turned-government officials, along with Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon.
As reports showed that Jo bypassed NIS director Kim and resigned directly to the presidential office, questions were raised over the reason behind his abrupt decision.
“It is questionable whether the NIS is operating under a proper chain of command,” main opposition Democratic Party of Korea spokesperson Lim O-kyeong said. “Though the presidential office said it is a personal matter, it is difficult to accept that the person who is in charge of preparing ahead of the audit resigned on the day of the audit. Given that the president has accepted the resignation immediately, it is suspicious that they are hiding some serious problems.”
Rumors have it that Jo was sidelined during a power struggle within the NIS, while some other speculation puts forward the possibility that Jo misbehaved in some manner or that it was due to a health issue.
Former NIS Director Park Jie-won believes that Jo resigned because Yoon dismissed the idea of a NIS human resources reshuffle plan proposed by Jo and instead accepted a separate one proposed by Director Kim.
During a radio interview with broadcaster CBS on Thursday morning, Park said submitting different reshuffle plans is “nonsense,” and claimed that the presidential office decided to accept the one raised by Director Kim after contemplation.
However, the NIS refuted this in a press release. It said, “Jo resigned from the post due to personal matters, such as health condition” and “a power struggle within the NIS is a groundless rumor.”