Reform at the National Intelligence Service (NIS) is at risk of never happening. For a while it looked like progress was going to be made in the wake of the illegal wiretapping case that overtook Korean politics last July, but time goes on and little has happened. The ruling Uri Party does not look like it has an active intention to move ahead. That is deplorable.
NIS reform can be summed up as facing up to parts of its dark past and future-oriented organizational reform. You could say that some progress has been made in the area of dealing with the past. The only reason the truth about cases concocted during the dictatorships such as the People's Revolutionary Party (In Hyeok Dang) affair is being revealed piece by piece is because of cooperation from the NIS. Much of the chronic abuses have been done away with because president Roh Moo Hyun has kept the NIS from involvement in domestic politics with activities such as illegal wiretapping and politically motivated surveillance. He should be credited for his attitude that does not seek to use the intelligence agency for political ends.
That, however, is not enough. The task of general reform and reorganization remains. The NIS is directly under the Office of the President, so if reform runs aground it is ultimately the president's responsibility.
The NIS' biggest problem is that it has no long-term blueprint for profoundly strengthening its overseas intelligence gathering capabilities – the lack of which has long been cited as a weak point – and that it lacks any will to implement such plans. Also a problem is how someone from a particular conglomerate got appointed to a newly created high-ranking position there. That is a situation that needs to be corrected as soon as possible, so as to avoid inviting the suspicion that there are collusive connections between one of the country's intelligence agencies and big business. When Kim Seon Il, a Korean man working in Iraq, was kidnapped and killed there two years ago, you saw how weak the NIS' intelligence is. Observers cite the appointment of former justice minister Kim Seung Gyu as the man responsible for the NIS as a factor that keeps foreign intelligence on the back burner there. Kim had no previous experience in that field.
If the NIS truly wants to be reborn as a foreign intelligence gathering agency, it needs to take the initiative and engage in structural reorganization on its own. It is in a state of deformity, with most of its budget and personnel concentrated on domestic work, and unless that changes, strengthening its foreign intelligence gathering capabilities will be fundamentally impossible. For starters, it needs to boldly surrender its investigative authority, something that has long been the subject of controversy. It needs to realize that it has much more to lose than gain by having the right to do domestic investigations.
President Roh needs to have a change in attitude and take an active party in pushing NIS reform. By its very nature, most of an intelligence organization's work is done in secret, so reorganizing the structure of the NIS will essentially be impossible without determination to see it happen on the part of the president.
The ruling and opposition parties need to approach the issue of NIS reform with the big picture in mind – the national interest - and leave their partisan interests behind. The National Assembly's Intelligence Committee is the only formal provision for oversight, and thus has a very important responsibility. It is unfortunate that the subcommittee created in September of last year for pursuing reform is just idling the time away. It is especially disappointing that Uri Party is so confused about what to do, and has been unable to even decided on a formal position despite pledging to reform the NIS back at election time. That is not a stance becoming of a responsible ruling party. We strongly call on the ruling and opposition parties to wake up and take action.
The Hankyoreh, 23 March 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Nat'l Intelligence Service Reform Going Nowhere |
