hankyoreh

By Lee Soon-hyuk　

Following the revelation that agents belonging to the Defense Security Command (DSC) hacked the email of 48-year-old professor Ki Gwang-seo of Chosun University, claims have emerged that the DSC has formed a committee to play down and cover up the incident. With a string of testimonies emerging from within the military that the DSC fabricated the case and made deceptive reports even to the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) and the Ministry of National Defense, the scandal seems likely to intensify.

A Democratic Party (DP) committee formed to investigate the truth regarding surveillance of civilians by the DSC, chaired by Lawmaker Choi Jae-sung, held a press conference on Sunday morning at the National Assembly.

“There have been specific reports that the DSC held a meeting early on to find ways of playing down and covering up the incident. We are currently undergoing procedures to confirm this and, if it is confirmed, we will be sure to call [the DSC] to account,” the committee said during the press conference. “The DSC must not show an attitude of attempting to find a low-level scapegoat regarding the surveillance of civilians, but must reveal the whole truth to the public and take full responsibility.”

Within the military, too, word is going around that several meetings were held in the early days of the incident and attended by figures at the top of the DSC, and that organized destruction of evidence took place in accordance with the decisions taken at these meetings.

“Early on in the case, the 31st division of the military police led the investigation and were supported by expert investigators from the MND. As far as I know, it was during this process that a considerable part of the suspicions of destruction of evidence were formed,” said an official from a military investigative body. “But I doubt whether the military police, who have no choice but to watch themselves in front of the DSC, have the capacity or the will to state the facts as they are.”

Another official, too, said, “If evidence was destroyed, this would not have been possible at the level of the unit involved [because it lacks the capacity to do so]. It must have been arbitrated by the DSC. Soldiers are only staying silent because they have to; hardly anyone will take the DSC’s explanation [that non-commissioned officers and civilians attached to the military did it of their own accord].”

“I cannot understand the claim that mere civilians attached to the military and non-commissioned officers did something like this independently at the DSC, which has the most centralized power structure even in the military,” said a Defense Ministry official. “Even if you were to accept that explanation, it would mean that organizational discipline had collapsed completely and the DSC was out of control, which would be an even more serious problem.”

Surveillance of civilians by the DSC first came to light in late August and early September, when Ki Gwang-seo, a professor at Chosun University, claimed that his emails had been hacked and requested a police investigation. The police investigation confirmed that the IDs of two DSC agents had been used. The DSC first claimed that the IDs had been used illegally, but changed its story once the agents’ involvement had been confirmed to claim that they had committed criminal acts in an individual capacity.

The DSC is an intelligence unit within the military that aims to ferret out spies and prevent coups d’etat. Having gone through various guises in the past, it changed its name to the Defense Security Command after a soldier named Yun Seok-yang blew the whistle on its surveillance of citizens in 1990. All units of division level and above contain a DSC unit, which monitors the tendencies of the commander. Data collected by these DSC units are submitted to the Defense Ministry and Cheong Wa Dae and used when making personnel appointments. This is why it is often said in the military that even the highest-ranking commanders watch themselves in front of the DSC.

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