The investigation into illegal eavesdropping by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) during the government of Kim Dae Jung is coming to life. Tapes that appear to be recordings of conversations among prominent politicians have been discovered in the home of a former NIS official, and NIS officials have admitted drafting a document the Grand National Party (GNP) had claimed was based on surveillance of its activities immediately before the 2002 presidential election. That is progress, since while there had been confessions from the NIS about bugging activities during the Government of the People there had until now been little confirmed in the way of specific facts. Previous directors of the NIS have always strongly denied there was any illegal eavesdropping, but that assertion has become the same as trying to hide the heavens with your hand.
The single most critical question that the prosecution needs to find answers to is whether administration-level "political surveillance" continued on into the Government of the People. If you look at the 2002 documentation exposed by the GNP prominent politicians, news media executives, high-ranking civil servants, and even journalists had their conversations bugged. Anyone could tell you that makes it look very much like it was "political surveillance," and so the prosecution needs to thoroughly uncover who ordered the activity and for what purpose, who the results were reported to and how they were put to use. There also needs to be accurate clarification of whether there really wasn't any illegal bugging after March of 2002, as the NIS has announced, and whether there was any of the "on-site" bugging activity like done by the "Mirim Team" back when the NIS was called the Agency for National Security Planning.
The fact more tapes have been found at home of a former NIS official shows you once again how the moral insensibility of NIS employees is beyond repair. Even if the wrongful practice of keeping tapes for "insurance purposes" was limited to an extremely small number of employees, there's no assurance that similar tapes won't be discovered in the future. Prosecutors also need to figure out whether employees in possession of similar tapes ever tried to make money off of them.
The Hankyoreh, 25 September 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] 'Political Surveillance' Under 'Gov't of the People'? |
