hankyoreh

file a petition at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) headquarters located in Seoul’s Jung district

The Defense Security Command (DSC), the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) counterintelligence arm, is proposing the creation of a cyberdefense organization under its command, and is asking the ministry for a large number of brass to run it, including a commanding major general and six colonels. This has lead to accusations that the DSC is attempting to grow in size and significance within the nation’s defense apparatus. Some are also expressing concern about the possibility more civilians could be the object of cyber-surveillance. The DSC has been accused of engaging in illegal surveillance of civilians as recently as this year.

According to the proposal drafted by the DSC and submitted for approval by the MND, in addition to a major general and six colonels, the unit would be composed of 500 personnel, including approximately 80 from its cyber warfare response center and close to 100 other cybersecurity personnel. Duties would, among other tasks, include the protection of online and training in cyber-defense technology.

South Korea’s MND is reported to be opposed to the idea at a time when its reform plans call for the merging of ministry organizations and reduction in personnel in an effort to increase overall efficiency. The Hankyoreh has learned that members of the DSC and ministry officials have on at least one occasion found themselves in a heated shouting match over the proposal.

“Some 150 of the 500 cyber-defense personnel the DSC wants for its new unit represent purely an increase in number from current DSC staff levels, and it is also asking for more big brass, like colonels,” said a ministry official on Sept. 3. “The DSC is talking up cybersecurity in order to inflate its size at a time when everyone is working to reduce cost expenditures.”

The DSC’s desire to expand its role to cybersecurity goes beyond its mission of counterintelligence within the military and is the target of extensive criticism. Currently, cyber-defense within the military has been handled by the Defense Intelligence Command (DIC), directly under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and yet the DSC is asking that it be given DIC’s duties and that the ministry’s intelligence rules be amended to make it possible.

“If a cyber-defense unit is put under DSC, which is responsible for military counterintelligence and surveillance, it is going to be able to put civilians under online surveillance arbitrarily, at its own will, under the rationale that a civilian is connected to something that pertains to the military, just as we saw in the recent controversy over DSC surveillance of civilians,” said the same ministry official.

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