hankyoreh

NIS

By Gil Yun-hyung, staff writer

Evidence has come up suggesting that illegal civilian surveillance by the public ethics division of the Prime Minister's Office may have been coordinated with intelligence organizations such as the Defense Security Command and National Intelligence Service.

The Democratic United Party's "citizens' committee to try MB [President Lee Myung-bak] and the New Frontier Party" claimed Tuesday that a message reading "Participation from the Blue House, public official, NIS, and DSC" was found in a 100-page pocketbook possessed by Won Chung-yeon, an employee of the public ethics division’s first inspection team, which spearheaded the surveillance effort.

"Since the Defense Security Command (DSC) is only supposed to do things related to military personnel and cannot do anything connected with civilians under any circumstances, [its collaboration with the surveillance] would be a clear violation of the law and deception of the South Korean people," the committee said.

The committee also reported a passage in the notebook which read, "Transmission: Internal-Minister/External- Blue House, Public Prosecutors' Office, NIS," and noted that materials showed the NIS to be included on a list of recipients.

"From this, we can tell that the surveillance details were shared with the NIS," the committee said.

The committee also said that while two NIS employees were officially sent to the public ethics office prior to the discovery of the surveillance, the presence of additional names and numbers of employees in the notebook suggested that the DSC may have illegally dispatched employees as well.

Indeed, the DSC was caught spying on civilians two years ago. Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Lee Jung-hee alleged civilian surveillance by the organization, presenting the notebook and identification of a DSC captain named Shin that she had obtained at an Aug. 2009 rally in Pyeongtaek to protest police suppression of the Ssangyong Motor labor union.

That notebook included detailed records by date and time from January and July of that year showing the activities of individuals with no direct connection to the military, including DLP officials and civic and social group members.

Won's notebook was also found to contain the names of former Korean Confederation of Trade Unions president Lee Seok-haeng and Federation of Korean Trade Unions president Lee Yong-deuk, suggesting that they too were spied on.

Committee chairwoman Park Young-sun said, "There is no way of explaining the appearance of the DSC in a notebook belonging to a public ethics office employee.

"The Blue House needs to state the truth about DSC and NIS involvement," Park added.

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