Court orders indictment of two NIS figures on election meddling

A Seoul court ordered state prosecutors Monday to indict two figures from the state intelligence agency for their alleged involvement in a high-profile election meddling scandal.

The scandal centers on allegations that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) launched an online smear campaign to sway public opinion in favor of President Park Geun-hye, the then ruling party candidate, ahead of last year's presidential election.

Then NIS chief Won Sei-hoon was indicted in June on charges of interfering in the election. Prosecutors, however, did not bring charges against five former and incumbent NIS agents. Won and others insist that the online activities were a routine part of psychological warfare on North Korea.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) soon filed a complaint with the Seoul High Court, asking it to determine whether to bring the charges against the five.

Accepting the DP's request, the court ordered the state prosecutors to indict Lee Jong-myeong, who at the time was in charge of information gathering and strategy on North Korea, and Min Byoung-joo, who headed the psychological warfare team. Min is still employed at the NIS.

"Lee and Min should be indicted for violating the Public Official Election Act, taking into consideration their position and the level of their involvement in the case," the court said in the ruling.

The court, however, did not accept the request by the DP to order the state prosecutors to indict the other three, saying that they were just following the orders of their superiors.

A key witness in Won's trial admitted in court Monday that she had partly lied to the police during early questioning, including her contacts with other agents and meetings with her superior and lawyer around the time of the police probe. She maintained, however, that there were no specific orders from Won and that the agents handled the procedural details on their own.

The witness, a 29-year-old woman whom the court only identified by the last name Kim, became a central figure in the NIS scandal after DP members rushed to her apartment office to reportedly catch her in the act of writing political internet postings in favor of Park Geun-hye.

She told the court that she initially lied about her contacts to protect her superior. She also admitted to erasing records of her cyber activities on her laptop when DP members came to her office.  "I took security measures because it was possible that (people outside) could break down the door," she said.

(Yonhap News)