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| President Moon Jae-in walks with new National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won, right, new Unification Minister Lee In-young, second from left, and new National Police Agency head Kim Chang-ryong, left, after giving them letters of appointment at Cheong Wa Dae, July 29. / Korea Times file |
By Kang Seung-woo
The much-heralded new national security team is off to a rough start as the spy agency head is in the hot seat over political intervention allegations and the unification minister faces heat over a botched plan for inter-Korean exchanges.
President Moon Jae-in shook up his national security lineup last month in a bid to double down on his inter-Korean peace initiative, with veteran politicians Park Jie-won and Lee In-young appointed to lead the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Ministry of Unification respectively.
However, they have not lived up to their boss' expectations to date.
The NIS director, a former four-term lawmaker, garnered headlines last week after saying in his first briefing to the National Assembly Intelligence Committee that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has delegated partial authority to his sister Kim Yo-jong and other top officials because he faces too much stress.
However, critics, including Kyungnam University professor Kim Keun-sik, say that the NIS's announcement is nothing but a political tactic, aimed at diverting public outcry for the government's policy missteps in multiple areas including failed real estate regulations.
"The head of the nation's spy agency still acts like a politician," the professor wrote on Facebook.
"Since the beginning of the Kim Jong-un regime (in 2011), Kim has focused on shifting the country from a military-first state to a party-centered one and as part of it, he is delegating some responsibilities to his officials, which is well-known publicly. But the NIS chief's briefing sounded like something serious happened to the North Korean leader, distracting public and media attention with the North Korean issue," said professor Kim, who has worked as an adviser with the unification ministry, the defense ministry and the National Security Office (NSO).
When taking office last month, the unification minister, a long-time advocate of engagement with the North, floated the idea of "small-scale trading" with the North to expand cross-border exchanges. As part of that, he proposed barter transactions through which, for example, Seoul exchanges its rice and pharmaceuticals with Pyongyang's mineral water and liquor, while obeying international sanctions by avoiding bulk cash transfers.
However, Lee's ambitious plan hit a snag from the beginning as the North's Kaesong Koryo Insam Trading Company, which was supposed to barter ginseng, blueberry liquor and other products in exchange for sugar from a South Korean farmers' group, was founded to have been subject to international sanctions on suspicion of handling secret slush funds for the Kim family.
According to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), a member of the Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the unification ministry failed to conduct a complete background check on the North Korean firm through the NIS.
In response to reporters saying the 150 million won ($126,039) deal has been scrapped, the ministry said it still stands because Kaesong Koryo Insam Trading was just one of multiple potential counterpart companies.
"The question is arising as to whether the newly launched national security team is in running order given a series of their missteps," said Rep. Tae Young-ho of the UFP, a North Korean defector-turned-politician who used to spell his name as Thae Yong-ho.
Tae also raised the question about the NSO's handling of a visit last week by Yang Jiechi, China's leading diplomat, instead of the foreign ministry, saying it is similar to systems of the North or China.
"Even now, President Moon needs to get respective organizations' roles straight," he said.
