[Newsmaker] Jailed ex-spy chief grilled over political manipulation

The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office called in Won, who has been serving a four-year prison term for meddling in the 2012 presidential election, as a suspect to look into fresh allegations over his involvement in running an online smear campaign to influence public opinion and supporting the operation with state budget.

Won, who served as the NIS chief from 2009-2013 under the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, is at the heart of allegations surrounding the spy agency.

Under Won’s direction, the spy agency is suspected of orchestrating an online smear campaign to help then-conservative candidate Park Geun-hye to beat liberal candidate Moon Jae-in in the run-up to the 2012 election. It allegedly ordered some 50 “cyber” teams, consisting of psychological warfare agents and internet-savvy civilians, to post comments in favor of Park and critical of Moon online. Ex-President Park won the vote by a narrow margin.

The prosecution was set to grill Won over allegations that he misappropriated state budget funds worth some 7 billion won ($6.1 million) to support the cyber teams for the covert operation. Based on suspicions that Won had one-on-one meetings with Lee, prosecutors were to ask whether he received an order from then-President Lee and how often he reported to him.

The probe is expanding to former President Lee, after Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and a group of cultural figures, who were on the Lee administration’s blacklist, filed a complaint against him.

The ruling Democratic Party also called for a probe into Lee and his aides on Monday, claiming Lee had been the mastermind behind the spy agency’s alleged interference in domestic politics.

The probe is gaining pace, with a team of 15 prosecutors looking into several accusations.

The spy agency faces other allegations that it cracked down on Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who was a vocal critic of the Lee government, blacklisted left-wing cultural figures to deprive them of access to state-led projects, peddled influence over broadcasters and paid right-wing civic groups to hold rallies supporting the government.

The prosecution summoned Shin Seung-kyun, a former official at the NIS, for questioning Tuesday and raided homes of two former NIS officials over allegations surrounding the blacklist a day earlier.

After President Moon took office in May, the NIS formed a task force and conducted an internal probe into the agency’s alleged wrongdoings under the past conservative governments.

The investigation into the NIS began after the task force released documents, presumably written under then-NIS chief Won’s direction. The documents showed that the NIS blacklisted 82 liberal artists and had plans to oppress Seoul Mayor Park and his policy.

One of Moon’s key campaign pledges was to free the spy agency -- which is required to maintain political neutrality -- from political pressure and make its focus intelligence activities outside the country.

(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)