hankyoreh

Former President Lee Myung-bak walks into his office in the Gangnam district of Seoul with his head bowed on Sept. 29. NIS records uncovered by a Hankyoreh 21 investigation show that the spy agency pressured advertisers and broadcasters to sideline celebrities who were critical of Lee’s administration. (Yonhap News)

An internal document from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) shows that, during the presidency of Lee Myung-bak, the NIS took the lead in sidelining blacklisted celebrities by creating a “task force for rectifying celebrities” to put pressure not only on the government and broadcasters but even on advertisers. The NIS set up an “expulsion schedule” for figures who found themselves on the wrong side of the administration – such as Kim Eo-jun, who runs the Ddanzi Daily news website – and, for the most part, this schedule was carried out as planned.

On Sept. 29, the Hankyoreh 21 gained exclusive access to the key information in 14 NIS documents related to the celebrity blacklist (drafted between Oct. 2010 and July 2011) that were acquired by the team from the Seoul Central Office of the Prosecutors that is investigating the NIS. According to one of these documents, titled, “The Plan for Rectifying Figures in the Fields of Culture, Arts and Sports, which was drafted on Jan. 19, 2010, the NIS established the “task force for rectifying celebrities” under the NIS chief of planning and coordination in 2009.

The people who were the direct targets of the task force were comedian Kim Mi-hwa, comedian Kim Je-dong, actor Kwon Hae-hyo and singer Shin Hae-chul, who held critical views of the administration. “Broadcaster management and advertisers must be reminded to exclude [them] and to dig up their scandals to incite social outrage,” the NIS said. The phrase “remind advertisers to exclude” appears a number of other times in the document as well.

A document titled, “Considerations and State of Activity of Leftist Celebrities,” which was drafted on Aug. 24 of the same year, says that “unacceptable celebrities should basically be ignored rather than subjected to direct sanctions such as shutting down programming” but gave instructions for “appearances to be reduced through indirect sanctions” and for “large corporations to be encouraged by various ministries, local governments and business groups not to use [them].”

A second document, “Boosting Psychological Operations to Expel Forces Sympathetic to North Korea” that was drafted three months later on Nov. 5, states that “the hardliners [among the blacklisted celebrities] must be meticulously managed and excluded” while proposing concrete ways to deal with each celebrity.

“Various ministries, local governments and business groups are cooperating” on Shin Hae-chul and Kim Mi-hwa; “antagonists should be used to suppress” singer Kim Jang-hoon and comedian Gim Gu-ra; and “advertisers should be used to pressure advertisers to find new models to replace” comedian Park Mi-sun and singer Lee Ha-neul.

In a report called “Quick and Definite Implementation of the Expulsion of Left-leaning Guests on MBC” (drafted in July 2011), the NIS even mentioned the specific timing of when celebrities were supposed to be forced out: “Drop Kim Mi-hwa in April and Kim Yeo-jin in July…as subsequent measures, singer Yoon Do-hyun and actress Kim Gyu-ri are scheduled to be replaced in August, while Shin Hae-chul and Kim Eo-jun will be phased out around the adjustment of the fall lineup in October.”

In fact, Yoon Do-hyun and Kim Eo-jun were abruptly removed from the MBC radio programs “Date at 2 PM” and “Peculiar Counseling Center” in September and October, respectively.

By Kim Wan and Jung Hwan-bong, Hankyoreh 21 staff reporters

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