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By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

Did the US’s National Security Agency (NSA) illegally listen in on the South Korean President’s telephone conversations?

This question is now being asked after allegations that the intelligence organization tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other communication devices belonging to 35 world leaders.

On Oct. 24, Britain’s Guardian newspaper printed an article claiming that the NSA tapped the communication devices of heads of state from 35 countries. The claims were based on a confidential document provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"From time to time, SID [the agency’s Signals Intelligence Directorate] is offered access to the personal contact databases of US officials," said the memo, which was written in Oct. 2006. “Such 'Rolodexes' may contain contact information for foreign political or military leaders, to include direct line, fax, residence and cellular numbers.”

As an example, the document noted that a US official had recently supplied 200 mobile phone numbers, including those of 35 world leaders.

In the document, the NSA said the number had produced “little reportable intelligence,” though it reported being able to confirm other telephone numbers.

Because the document did not say which leaders had been included on the list, it could not be confirmed whether the South Korean President was among them. But the fact that the South Korean embassy was included on another list of 38 diplomatic offices in Washington and New York that were tapped by the NSA, as printed in another Guardian article in late June, suggests this may have been the case.

Indeed, Washington would have had a lot of intelligence “demand” in 2006, a year that saw many especially sensitive issues between the US and South Korea - including talks toward a Free Trade Agreement, the transfer of wartime operational control, and the first North Korean nuclear test - and large differences in views between their leaders at the time, US President George W. Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

The NSA may still be tapping foreign leaders’ conversations. When asked about the allegations of Merkel’s tapping at an Oct. 24 briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney said it plans to change its practices in response to the outcry from Germany, suggesting that the eavesdropping is still going on.

“At the President’s direction, we are reviewing the way that we gather intelligence to ensure that we properly balance the security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share,” Carney said at the briefing.

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