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July 31. After the meeting

After previously blasting allegations that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) monitored civilians as “risking our own security,” the agency and ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) have leaked security details beneficial to themselves over the past few days.

The opposition blasted the party on July 31 as “the real ones hurting security and breaking the law.”

Lee Jong-kul, floor leader for the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), attacked the Saenuri Party over the leaks at a supreme council meeting that day.

“The ‘hacking success’ the NIS praised itself for was intelligence about North Korean weapons transactions that was a highly sensitive secret in diplomatic and security terms, which was nonetheless leaked to the press by a ruling party lawmaker,” Lee said.

“This was a Faustian bargain trafficking in confidential information for national security,” he added.

The episode Lee referred to was a report in the National Assembly Intelligence Committee on July 27 that the NIS used a remote control system (RCS) hacking program in an attempted hack of 200 items of North Korean illegal weapons trafficking intelligence. After the session, the committee chairperson, ruling and opposition party committee secretaries, and NIS spokesperson agreed that the information was a confidential national security matter that should not be leaked to the press. A day later, it was reported in news outlets as information from a “ruling party source.”

The opposition believes the Saenuri Party deliberately leaked details to the press about the “hacking success” against North Korea to deflect allegations about civilian surveillance. If so, it would potentially be in violation of Article 54.2 of the National Assembly Act, which states that “no member or employee . . . of the Intelligence Committee shall disclose or divulge to another person any matters concerning national secrets which he/she has learned in the course of carrying out his/her duties.”

The NPAD also said on July 31 that it was adding more names to its complaint to prosecutors over the drafting of a statement in the name of the all NIS staff and the acquisition of RCS, including those of agency director Lee Byung-ho, former planning and coordination office chief Mok Yeong-man, and officials with the agency’s technical research and development team. The complaint also includes four new South Korean personal computer IP addresses suspected of having been accessed with NIS-purchased hacking programs on Dec. 9 and 18 just before the 2012 presidential election, which it asks prosecutors to investigate.

Instead of just countering with demands that the opposition back up its NIS hacking allegations with evidence, the ruling Saenuri Party has opted for what amounts to a strategy of silence and not answering the allegations at all.

Speaking at a joint meeting of floor leaders and policy committee members on July 31, Saenuri strategy and planning office chief Kweon Seong-dong said the opposition’s allegations “are no longer worth responding to.”

“It would be better to proceed with a strategy of disregard,” Kweon added.

By Lee Seung-joon and Kim Kyung-wook, staff reporters

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