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The US Pentagon. (Reuters/Yonhap)

While South Korea’s presidential office has repeatedly refuted allegations that the CIA spied on Korea’s National Security Office (NSO) by claiming that leaked documents were fabricated or manipulated by third parties, there are several dubious aspects of that narrative. Experts argue that the presidential office’s rush to curtail the debate over national security issues may end up being counterproductive.

NSO First Deputy Director Kim Tae-hyo’s remark that Korea “hasn’t found any evidence of ill will from our ally the US” was roundly condemned in political circles on Wednesday. Critics said that good will and ill will are of little consequence where spying is concerned.

“Are they saying that good intensions make it okay to illegally spy on an allied country? Why are we in such a hurry to cover things up by insisting that we’re in agreement with the US when we’re the ones who got spied on?” asked Park Hong-keun, the floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, in an expanded meeting of party leaders on Wednesday.

“Spying is spying and there’s nothing good about it. As a sovereign nation, our government ought to be marshaling criticism from the press and the opposition party as leverage for achieving its diplomatic aims, rather than categorically denying the allegations,” said Park Jie-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service, in a radio interview with SBS.

“It’s an open secret that the US is spying [on us], and it would be reasonable to assume that the presidential office is also subject to that kind of illegal surveillance. These allegations need to be fully investigated, albeit on an unofficial level,” said Yoon Sang-hyun, a lawmaker with the ruling People Power Party, in a meeting with leading lawmakers.

Questions have also been raised by the remarks from Kim Tae-hyo, who followed up his claims the day before that “a substantial number of the leaked documents were fabricated” by insisting that there had been “third-party interference in many respects.”

His message emphasizes claims of third-party involvement that have been raised in certain quarters, without presenting any plausible evidence to back them up — and after US defense and intelligence leaders have already acknowledged most of the leaked documents to be the original versions.

Since the leak of the classified documents, some observers in the US have raised the possibility that doctored versions were leaked by Russia or other parties hostile to the US, but nothing has been confirmed to date.

In particular, analysts suggested the content disclosed by the New York Times from conversations by National Security Office officials was too closely tied to the domestic situation to have been fabricated through third-party interference.

The leaked confidential documents show conversations in which figures like recently departed National Security Office Director Kim Sung-han wrestled with the US’ demands for support to Ukraine and the government’s principle of not providing assistance with lethal weapons.

In a message posted on Facebook, a military expert and former Justice Party lawmaker Kim Jong-dae wrote, “The claims of National Security Office officials that were leaked to the press are accurate without any distortions.”

“They are statements that could not have been made without an accurate understanding of South Korea’s legal system and policies when it comes to weapon exports, and they line up completely with what the South Korean government has actually examined,” he stressed.

“It even included the precise names and positions of who would have to examine which policies for artillery shells to be provided [to Ukraine],” he explained.

Analysts have also offered differing explanations of the position statement previously made by the presidential office, which said it could “unambiguously affirm that the allegations of eavesdropping on the Yongsan presidential office are absurd fabrications.”

One possibility is that the eavesdropping took place in a different location besides the actual presidential office or made use of human intelligence (HUMINT) gathering. This speculation is supported by the presidential office’s assertions that the Yongsan presidential office is “more secure” than the Blue House was.

In his own Facebook message, former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok wrote, “If the categorical denial of the possibility of eavesdropping is true, that would mean that someone leaked [the information], and that there is somebody among South Korea’s key national security officials who is handing information over to the US.”

“It’s a serious enough situation to have our communications intercepted, but a leak by an insider would be an even more serious situation,” he added.

During a radio interview with MBC the day before, Democratic Party lawmaker Youn Kun-young, who chaired the governance situation room under the Moon Jae-in administration, said, “Even if we concede that the Yongsan presidential office’s claims are correct and there was no eavesdropping there, the only possibility left is that the intelligence was passed along through some different channel such as HUMINT.”

“If the Republic of Korea’s presidential office was compromised in this way, that raises troubling questions about how well we are preventing spying activities by Russia, China or North Korea,” he added.

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter

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