On Sunday Uri Party chairman Moon Hee Sang, who had been an official at the National Intelligence Agency (NIS) during the government of Kim Dae Jung, held a press conference at which he said he had no idea of what was going on because he was not in the loop on intelligence reports. Former NIS director Lim Dong Won says he never received any reports about any illegal eavesdropping. Figuring out whether they knew anything or not will require through verification, but even if they didn't know anything they still have nothing to be bragging about. Moon says he was so busy trying to rid the organization of the wrongful practices that it followed back when it was called the National Security Planning Agency that he was unable to worry about other issues, but its biggest crime was precisely that illegal eavesdropping so you have a hard time understanding what it was he was so busy eradicating.
The primary reason the people are enraged and feeling so frustrated is that they have been deceived for so long by the government, but part of it is the pent-up resentment they feel at having entrusted the country to such irresponsible people. The right kind of high-ranking public official would do the right thing and reflect on and apologize for his "incompetence" before asserting his innocence. It is like spitting on your own face to try to cover for yourself by saying you don't know anything, as if everything was someone else's business. And is not Moon currently the man in the highest position in the ruling party?
You see the same thing at the prosecution. In 2002, ahead of the presidential election, it investigated suspicions the NIS had been engaging in surveillance activities and concluded there was "no evidence" the intelligence agency was doing illegal surveillance and also that mobile phone conversations could not be listened to with current technology. The worst interpretation you could make is that it let the NIS go off easy, and the best way to look at it would be to say the NIS took the prosecution for a ride. The same prosecution section that investigated that earlier case is investigating the current questions about illegal eavesdropping. It's frustrating trying to decide whether or not to believe in a prosecution that is so incompetent.
Cheong Wa Dae says that there has been absolutely no illegal eavesdropping since the start of the Participatory Government, but the people remain cynical because they are tired of the government's irresponsible attitude. They feel like if the time comes high-ranking members of the current government will say "there's no way that could've happened" and "I have no recollection of that matter" and evade responsibility. The people are tired of being forced to accept "trust us" for an answer.
The Hankyoreh, 8 August 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
