Prosecutors on Monday started to investigate South Korea's spy chief who has came under fire for leaking the transcript of a secret conversation he had with his North Korean counterpart on the eve of last month's presidential election.
Kim Man-bok, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), publicly admitted last week that he leaked to some local media excerpts of his talk with Kim Yang-gon, a close confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The two met during Kim's secret trip to Pyongyang on Dec. 18, a day before the election.
The NIS chief was quoted in the leaked transcript as telling his North Korean counterpart that "Candidate Lee Myung-bak (of the conservative opposition Grand National Party) is almost certain to win" and, "A Lee Myung-bak government will be able to persuade South Korea's conservative group well and push North Korean policy even more actively than the current government has done."
Critics suspect Kim intentionally disclosed the remarks to the local media to seek political favors from Lee who takes power on Feb. 25.
The spy chief has offered to resign, but outgoing President Roh Moo-hyun has yet to accept his resignation. His aides said that he needs more time to examine whether the leaked transcript should be considered as confidential or not. The NIS has yet to give the transcript a level of confidentiality.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office believes the transcript could be confidential, but will defer its judgement until the investigation is completed. It will then decide whether
or not to indict him, said Shin Jong-dae, a senior prosecutor who will lead the probe.
"Considering the content of the transcript and how it was leaked, our judgment at the moment is that the transcript could be an 'official secret,'" Shin told reporters.
The investigation will focus on whether his dialogue with the North Korean spy chief should be classified as confidential, and whether the media leak of the conversation should be subject to criminal punishment, he said.
South Korea's criminal law requires that a public servant who reveals an official secret be sentenced to up to two years in prison or suspended from his post for up to five years.
While attacking the spy chief, the transition team of the president-elect called on the prosecution to thoroughly review the leak and to hold Kim legally responsible. Kim "disrupted the national order that should have never been done by the head of the nation's intelligence agency," the team spokesman, Lee Dong-kwan, said.
South Korea's spy chiefs have traditionally faced a dishonorable end whenever a new government comes in. In the latest such case, Lim Dong-won, an NIS chief for former President Kim Dae-jung, received a suspended jail term for illegally sending funds to North Korea in return for the holding of the first 2000 summit of the two Koreas, shortly after Roh became president.