Prosecution must now come up with evidence of espionage committed for North
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has reportedly sent a high-profile espionage case to the prosecution after not having found substantial evidence. Kim Seung-gyu, head of the NIS, has claimed that five men under investigation were spies for North Korea, while those opposing the investigation say the men are victims of the National Security Law, long used against political dissidents. Now the question is whether the prosecution will be able to find any reliable evidence to bring formal charges against the accused. Five men, including one former and one current member of the minor progressive Democratic Labor Party and an ethnic Korean with U.S. citizenship, have been accused of meeting with a North Korean spy in Beijing as recently as 1999. The NIS and the prosecution now have 30 days to produce enough evidence to formally charge the men with espionage. An official of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, asking to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, said he received a briefing from the NIS that said, "Unlike NIS director Kim’s remarks, nothing has been confirmed [regarding the accusations of espionage]." The burden of proof now falls on the prosecution, which must come up with substantial evidence against the accused or be forced to drop its plans to charge the five men with espionage.The prosecution plans to focus its investigation on finding out if the suspects joined a pro-Pyongyang South Korean group (Ilsimhoe) and if they met with North Korean officials knowing that the officials were looking to work with spies in the South. In addition, the prosecution is going to investigate civic organizations and political party officials mentioned in documents recovered from the five accused men. Due to the seriousness of the accusations as well as the publicity surrounding the case, a plan is reportedly under consideration to appoint a special investigation team. The prosecution is also reviewing a plan to increase the number of investigators on the case. The prosecution has a difficult case on its hands, as the suspects have denied the accusations, and may use their right to remain silent during this preliminary investigation. The lawyers of the accused have already taken issue with attempts by the NIS to limit the lawyers’ right to take part in the investigation. Another hurdle the prosecution faces is the huge amount of investigatory records it must pore over. An official at the prosecution said that "the amount of investigation records for three of the suspects, which the NIS forwarded to the prosecution, is 770,000 pages long." If the documents of the remaining two suspects are sent to the prosecution, the prosecutors will have to review an estimated one million pages in four weeks’ time. [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
