Prosecution to Summon Intelligence Agent
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The prosecution will soon summon a member of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) who was found to have collected personal information on Lee Myung-bak, a leading presidential contender of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP).
Prosecutors said Monday that they would secure evidence after the spy agency completes its internal inspection and question the agent, Koh, as soon as possible. They requested the agency to submit the results of the inspection to them.
Last Friday, the NIS admitted that Koh in a task force team against corruption reviewed property trading records of Lee and his relatives from the intranet of the Government Administration and Home Affairs Ministry.
The agency claimed that Koh had neither reported the records to higher-level officials nor leaked them. It said the act was a part of his duties. But the GNP claimed that the intelligence agency violated the law.
Lee's camp said the agency formed a task force to collect incriminating information against then Seoul Mayor Lee in early 2005 and made a file on him. Koh was a member of the special unit whose mission was to find possible corruption in Lee's project to restore the Cheonggye Stream and in real estate deals made by Lee and his family members, the camp said.
The prosecution will investigate whether high-ranking NIS officials, including then deputy director for domestic affairs, Lee Sang-eop, and then director, Kim Seung-kyu, were aware of the secret operation and whether the file was handed over to Cheong Wa Dae as the GNP claim.
In the meantime, Hong Yoon-shik, head of a support group of the GNP's other presidential contender Park Geun-hye, was detained when he voluntarily appeared before the prosecution to be questioned over allegations that he orchestrated the leak of resident registration records of Lee and his family.
On Sunday, a retired police officer Kwon Oh-han, who was detained for illegally obtaining the records, said he forwarded the copies to Hong. Kwon claimed Hong had asked him to obtain the records by giving him their resident registration numbers. But Hong claimed that Kwon had brought the records to him, which he later returned to the retired police officer.
Prosecutors questioned Hong over who was responsible for the leaks, whether the records were handed over to the Park camp or to pro-government Uri Party lawmakers, and whether there was bribery involved.
The prosecution is also investigating a 69-year-old man who obtained resident registration records of Lee and his family at two ward offices in Seoul, and is searching for a lawyer who allegedly asked the man to get the documents.