hankyoreh

Edward Snowden

For two reasons, the Hankyoreh has decided to look into the documents leaked by Edward Snowden, former contractor for the US National Security Agency (NSA).

First, nearly all of the information related to South Korea in the documents that Snowden made public in 2013 remains unexamined. Despite the direct implications for the national interest of documents indicating that South Korea was the subject of surveillance by Five Eyes - a partnership of intelligence organizations from the five countries of the US, the UK, Canada, Australia - the South Korean government and its intelligence community have apparently not been proactive in getting to the bottom of this. We also thought it would be worth exploring the nature of South Korea’s relationship with the NSA.

Another reason had to do with news that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) had purchased an allegedly illegal online surveillance program from a foreign company. While snooping is the bread and butter of intelligence organizations, a number of security experts argue that the development of internet technology has ushered in an age of indiscriminate surveillance that is distinct from the past.

In regard to the objectives and the focus of this investigative reporting, we consulted with dozens of experts in the areas of internet security and foreign policy and security and officials from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

Rather than the commonly used word “wiretapping,” the documents leaked by Snowden use the more arcane term “computer network exploitation,” abbreviated as CNE. Given the lack of an exact Korean equivalent, we have used a Korean expression meaning “online wiretapping” in our articles.

The Hankyoreh surveyed all 280 of the NSA documents (running to around 5,000 pages altogether) that were published by The Intercept, an independent news website created by Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who wrote articles based on information provided by Snowden. We also took another look at the hundreds of documents from Snowden that were published in Spiegel and the New York Times. In addition, we tracked down and reviewed all the reports composed by intelligence committees for the legislatures of the US, the UK, New Zealand, and Canada.

Finally, we obtained and reviewed reports submitted to US President Barack Obama by the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, which was set up after the Snowden incident and included representatives from the US executive branch, Congress, and IT companies.

By Ko Na-mu, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]