[Editorial] Problems With the NIS Budget

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is going to have a much bigger budget for domestic operations next year. Its total budget will be 4.3 percent larger than 2005, but money for its domestic section will go up by 12.3 percent. In other words, it will be spending far more money on domestic intelligence than for the rest of what it does.

There is much discussion about the need for reform at the NIS, and key to the ideas that have been proposed is either reducing or eliminating its domestic operations and having it concentrate on foreign intelligence. There are differences when it comes to concrete restructuring proposals, but the public is resolved about the need to largely reduce its domestic functions. Next year's budget goes completely against that. It especially makes no sense that in contrast to the increased funds for domestic intelligence, the foreign and North Korean sections will actually have less money earmarked for their operations. The NIS's says that is because a lot has been budgeted for facilities for North Korean defectors and the establishment of an anti-terrorism center, but that is not very convincing. A staffer at the National Assembly's intelligence committee says the problem is that president Roh Moo Hyun directed the NIS to review the policies of each of its departments, and that sounds like a much more convincing explanation.

Before finalizing the NIS's budget, the intelligence committee needs to look at each item and be exhaustive about examining whether they are appropriate. There also needs to be thorough review of how the whole of the country's intelligence budget is used, since some of it goes to the Ministry of National Defense and the National Police Agency but is nevertheless controlled by the NIS. The NIS, in turn, must not try to get past the whole issue by saying it cannot reveal anything because of the need to protect its secrets. It must not be forgotten that basically it was the NIS's secretive attitude and claims about its "unique needs" as an intelligence agency that allowed the illegal eavesdropping to take place.

The Hankyoreh, 26 November 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]