hankyoreh

By Jeon Jeong-yun, Lee Soon-hyuk and Park Byong-su, staff reporters

South Korea served as a key listening and surveillance partner for the “Five Eyes” network, a report revealed. “Five Eyes” refers to five English-speaking countries - the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada - that agreed to assist each other’s spying efforts as members of a surveillance alliance. These countries were reportedly monitoring high-speed fiber cables in twenty locations around the world.

The Sydney Morning Herald of Australia reported on Nov. 25, “Singapore and South Korea are playing key roles helping the United States and Australia tap undersea telecommunications links across Asia.” The paper cited a top-secret map from the US National Security Agency (NSA) that was leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for the claim.

On the NSA map, South Korea is labeled as a key point for listening and surveillance. South Korea’s undersea high-sea cables pass through Busan and extend to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It appears that the US intelligence agency used Korea as a hub to monitor the telecommunications information from these countries.

Regarding the report by the Sydney Morning Herald, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Cho Tae-young said on Nov. 25 that the ministry had no knowledge of this.

Jeong Han-geun, spokesperson for the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, said the ministry could not officially confirm any of the report.

In October, Kyodo News and other Japanese media reported that the NSA had asked the government of Japan in 2011 to allow it to monitor emails, phone calls, and other private information passing through the high-speed cables in the country, but Japan refused the request.

The US made this request in order to collect information related to China, but Japan expressed its opposition because of legal restrictions and a shortage of intelligence agents.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, South Korea has maintained a cooperative relationship concerning classified information for decades, not only with the US but also with Australia.

“South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has long been a close collaborator with the US Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA, as well as the Australian intelligence agencies,” the paper said. “The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) recently engaged in legal action in an unsuccessful effort to prevent publication of details of South Korean espionage in Australia.”

In May, a Korean-Australian public official was indicted on charges of leaking top-secret information related to the South Korea-Australia FTA negotiations to an employee of the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS).

“ASIO Director-General David Irvine told the Federal Court that Australian and South Korean intelligence agencies had been cooperating for ‘over 30 years’ and that any public disclose of NIS activities would be ‘detrimental’ to Australia’s national security,” the paper reported.

Along with South Korea, Singapore was also identified as one of the key countries that had helped Australia with its monitoring and surveillance. Singapore signed an agreement with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to help Australia tap two undersea cables. One of these cables passes through Japan, Singapore, Djibouti, Suez, Gibraltar and northern Germany, and the other connects Singapore with the south of France.

The primary objective of the collaboration between Australia and Singapore was the high-speed cables in Indonesia and Malaysia, the majority of which pass through Singapore. Singapore started building a close cooperative intelligence relationship with Australia in the late 1970s while it was establishing itself as a communications hub in Southeast Asia.

It was also revealed that Australia and New Zealand’s intelligence agencies have been monitoring satellite communications in nearby countries from the ASD satellite interception facility near Geraldton in Western Australia and a base operated by the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau facility on New Zealand’s South Island. These two bases, along with an ASD facility at Shoal Bay near Darwin in Northern Australia, are “listed by the NSA as being ‘primary FORNSAT (foreign satellite communications) collection operations,’” the paper said.

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