By Jun Ji-hye
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) plans to close two departments in charge of collecting and analyzing domestic intelligence as part of measures to accomplish President Moon Jae-in’s election pledge to reform the spy agency.
The move comes as the two departments have long been accused of meddling in politics and elections to support the ruling elite.
Jung Hae-gu, a politics professor at Sungkonghoe University, who chairs the NIS committee tasked with drawing up reform measures, told reporters Wednesday the committee will soon brief President Moon on the plan to remove the two departments and seek his endorsement.
“NIS officers belonging to the two departments will be retrained and assigned to other departments including one in charge of analyzing overseas intelligence,” he said. “Reform measures will be finalized soon, and relevant personnel changes will take place by early August.”
Jung said the planned removal of the two departments follows the abolition of the spy agency’s domestic intelligence operations, in which NIS officers gathered information on government ministries and organizations as well as media companies. On his June 1 inauguration, NIS chief Suh Hoon ordered the abolition of such operations.
Jung said such operations have been used by the agency as a tool to illegally intervene in domestic politics, and the two departments have orchestrated this.
The NIS’s suspected meddling in domestic politics includes its smear campaign against then-opposition party candidate Moon in the 2012 presidential election. At the time, the officers allegedly posted online comments negative to Moon to help the election of then-ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye.
But Jung noted the NIS’s function of collecting domestic intelligence related to espionage and terrorism will remain in place as such work comes with the territory of the spy agency.
“What have been the problems were the NIS activities of collecting information on politicians and civilians, which has been beyond the call of duty,” he said. “Collecting information on espionage should be done by the spy agency.”
In a similar move to reform the agency, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea is also planning to propose a bill to revise the NIS Act to transfer the agency’s anti-communist investigative functions to police.
DPK floor leader Rep. Woo Won-shik said at a party meeting, Wednesday, “The revision is to enhance the NIS’s political neutrality.”
But Rep. Lee Cheol-woo of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, who chairs the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, criticized the move Thursday. “That will only benefit North Korea,” he said.
Lee said capturing spies is a hard task that cannot be carried out by general judicial agencies such as the police.
Earlier, Cheong Wa Dae said halting the security investigation function of the NIS required legislation by the National Assembly, denying media reports the NIS had already decided to halt such investigations.