Probe of spy agency begins Tuesday

By Jun Ji-hye

Reps. Kweon Seong-dong, right, of the ruling Saenuri Party and Jung Cheong-rae of the opposition Democratic Party answer reporters’ questions at the National Assembly, Monday, after announcing the two parties agreed on launching the parliament investigation from today until Aug. 15 into the National Intelligence Service’s meddling in the Dec. 19 presidential election. / Yonhap

The ruling and opposition parties agreed Monday to launch a National Assembly investigation into the National Intelligence Service (NIS) for 45 days beginning Tuesday for its illegal interference in the Dec. 19 presidential poll.

Reps. Kweon Seong-dong of the ruling Saenuri Party and Jung Cheong-rae of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), both members of the parliamentary investigation task force (TF), reached the agreement.

“We agreed on the investigation period. It will begin Tuesday and run till Aug. 15,” said the two lawmakers in a statement at a press conference.

“We will meet on Tuesday morning again to complete the investigation plan such as who will be questioned in the Assembly.”

The investigation plan will be put to a vote in the plenary session on Tuesday afternoon.

The agency was accused of posting negative online comments against opposition candidates including DP’s Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo.

However, before finalizing the plan, much more still remains to be resolved as the scandal has further been complicated by the NIS’s disclosure of records of the 2007 inter-Korean summit, and allegations of wrongdoing by some heavyweights of the ruling Saenuri Party, including Rep. Kim Moo-sung and Korea’s Ambassador to China Kwon Young-se. They are suspected of accessing the classified transcripts of the summit before the presidential election.

The two parties went head to head over whether the investigation will deal with allegations that the ruling party accessed the transcripts before the NIS publicly disclosed it.

DP spokesman Hong Ihk-pyo said Sunday, “The investigation has to handle broad issues surrounding the NIS including prior leakage of the transcripts,” while Saenuri Party spokesman Kim Tae-heum argued, “It is not the subject of this investigation.”

In case the prior leakage allegation is not included in the investigation agendas, the DP also called for opening an extraordinary session this month, but the ruling party countered saying doing so is “absolutely impossible.”

Also, rival parties are in arms over the composition of the TF that is composed of 16 lawmakers, eight from each party.

The ruling party called on the DP to exclude Reps. Kim Hyun and Jin Sun-mee, insisting that they were accused of violating the rights of an NIS agent as part of a group people who attempted to raid the residence of the agent in question, last December and prevented her from leaving.

The DP, on the other hand, demanded Rep. Chung Moon-hun be excluded, claiming he was the first figure who made public late President Roh Moo-hyun’s remarks on the country’s de facto sea border, the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

Meanwhile, the Assembly also plans to conduct another Assembly investigation into the closure of Jinju Medical Center (JMC) this month.

It is the first time in the Assembly’s history that two parliamentary investigations will be carried out concurrently.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers agreed on June 13 to launch an Assembly investigation into the JMC case for 32 days till July 13 to seek to normalize the nation’s public health service.

The public general hospital funded by the South Gyeongsang Provincial administration was shut down in May, despite strong protests from its unionized workers and opposition lawmakers, on the grounds that its deficit had reached 27.9 billion won ($24.5 million).

The Assembly plans to accomplish on-the-spot inspections early this month as well as receive reports about the real state of the province’s finances.

However, conflicts still remain as Gov. Hong Joon-pyo of the province, who decided to shut down the JMC calling it a “refuge for aristocratic unionists,” has refused to appear before the Assembly for questioning

“The Assembly abused its authority. Matters related to the JMC are the sole business of the provisional government. I will not appear in the ‘unlawful’ investigation,” he said late last week during a radio appearance.