NIS head denies meddling in politics

By Jun Ji-hye

Nam Jae-joon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), takes the witness stand at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. He attended a session of the parliament special committee in charge of an investigation into the NIS’s alleged intervention in the 2012 presidential election, and denied allegations of the organization’s election meddling. / Yonhap

Nam Jae-joon, head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), on Monday denied allegations at a parliamentary inquiry that the agency illegally intervened in the 2012 presidential election.

The spy agency chief claimed that a number of comments posted online by NIS agents were “justifiable works” and part of anti-North Korea psychological warfare.

The National Assembly Special Committee is overseeing an investigation into allegations of illegal meddling by the NIS during the election last December.

Nam is the first-ever head of the spy agency to appear before the Assembly for questioning in the nation’s history since the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, predecessor to the NIS, was established in 1961.

“First of all, I want to apologize for worrying the public regarding matters related to my agency. I understand that suspicions surrounding the spy agency sometimes emerge because the nature of the work undertaken by the NIS is mostly secretive,” said Nam.

“But I want to stress that the NIS has worked hard to protect national security amid continuous provocations from the North and the rapidly changing global situation.”

Former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon and ex-Seoul police chief Kim Yong-pan were both indicted on charges of violating the Election Law in June. According to the prosecution, Won ordered his agents to conduct an undercover cyber campaign to discredit opposition candidates during the presidential election, and Kim ordered the police to minimize an investigation into this.

The ruling Saenuri Party sided with the agency, saying that responding to North Korean sympathizers is a specific task for the NIS.

“If they had wanted to play a role in the election, there should have been critical comments regarding all issues in the nation. But what the police and prosecution found in online comments uploaded by the NIS were only those related to the North,” said Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the ruling party’s vice chairman of the committee.

However, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) stated with certainty that the Dec. 19 presidential election was an “illegal election.”

“The NIS was illegally involved in the election and the National Police Agency downsized their investigation following the DP’s accusation,” said Rep. Jung Cheong-rae, vice chairman of the DP.

“They even issued a false announcement of their investigation results just a few days before the polling day, saying there was no specific evidence that could prove that the NIS was involved in illegal campaigning.”

During his speech, Jung showed a video clip of some police officers in a laboratory analyzing evidence. In the clip, they said: “A serious thing will happen if what we found just now is made public.”

“President Park Geun-hye should take responsibility for this and make a public apology,” he said.

Parties initially planned to conduct a session targeting the NIS at 10 a.m. But it was postponed following a complaint from the DP regarding the nation’s three major TV stations that decided not to broadcast the session

The DP’s Jung Cheong-rae cast doubts on whether the broadcasting companies yielded under pressure of Cheong Wa Dae or the ruling party, stating that they have aired previous sessions in which the committee received a report from the Justice Ministry and the National Police Agency.

Soon after, the two parties agreed to both ask broadcasters to air the session, which they did, and resumed doing so at 2 p.m.

The committee opened an introductory session, including speeches from the vice chairmen of the committee and the NIS head, and then closed the session for questions, because both the DP and Saenuri Party had previously agreed to.

While the session was proceeding, vice chairmen of the rival parties, Reps. Kweon and Jung, continued to negotiate to draw up a final list of witnesses to face questions in the Assembly hearings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Both parties are said to have agreed in principle to call Kim and Won to the Assembly hearings.

But the sharpest conflict was over the DP’s demand to invite seasoned lawmaker from the Saenuri Party, Kim Moo-sung, and Ambassador to China Kwon Young-se as witnesses over allegations that they acquired a version of the minutes of the 2007 inter-Korean summit from the NIS last December, well before present head, Nam Jae-joon, released it in June.