Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Opposition party draws criticism for recruiting controversial ex-spy agents
Kim Jun-hwan, right, former deputy director at the National Intelligence Service, shakes hands with Lee Jae-myung, chief of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
The opposition Democratic Party of Korea has drawn criticism for recruiting two former top-ranking spy agents who were involved in political and legal controversies in the past.
Former deputy directors of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) under the previous Moon Jae-in administration ― Kim Jun-hwan and Park Sun-won ― joined the party recently as they apparently sought its nomination for the April 10 general elections.
Kim is among those allegedly involved in forcibly repatriating two North Korean fishers in November 2019, which drew a massive outcry here and abroad after the incident went public in 2022.
The prosecution found that Kim implemented the order by former NIS Director Suh Hoon to revise its internal report to back up the decision to deport them. Kim, however, was not indicted after investigators decided to press charges against only four officials whom it alleged played key roles.
After the party’s decision, some human rights activists expressed concerns over his potential political rise.
“It is astonishing that a former intelligence officer who had actively facilitated the murderous deportation of the two North Korean escapees has been recruited as ‘a new talent,’” Shin Hee-seok, a legal analyst at Transitional Justice Working Group, a Seoul-based NGO, told The Korea Times on Monday.
“The DPK should immediately cancel this scandalous recruitment and join the international call for Pyongyang to clarify the fate and whereabouts of [fishers surnamed] Woo and Kim.”
Park was embroiled in a controversy in 2010 after suggesting that technical issues may have been the cause of the sinking of the ROK Cheonan, a South Korean Navy corvette destroyed by a surprise torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine. Park, who was a think tank scholar then, was investigated for allegedly spreading false information, but the prosecution decided not to indict him.