Ex-spy chiefs cry foul over North Korea investigations

The ex-directors of the National Intelligence Service, Park Jie-won and Suh Hoon, claimed on Thursday that they were being “wrongfully accused” in the investigations of North Korea controversies from the Moon Jae-in era.

In July, the spy agency filed charges against its two former chiefs in a rare move, alleging that Park destroyed the intelligence reports on North Korea’s killing of the fisheries official Lee Dae-jun in 2020 and that Suh prematurely closed the investigative efforts into the forced repatriation of North Korean fishermen in 2019.

“In my time as the director of the NIS, I had never ordered anyone to delete intelligence reports. The agents are not fools who would follow such orders,” Park said.

He argued that even if he had someone delete the intelligence reports, the NIS had a “main server” that would retain records of all of those activities as well as the originals.

He refuted the NIS explanation to reporters earlier the same day that it was possible to expunge records from its main server, but that it would be illegal to do so without a justifiable reason. The NIS also said that no other director before Park had sought to delete intelligence reports.

In response to the NIS, he said, “Well, not to my knowledge.” “You cannot delete the records from the main server,” he said.

“You see, I think things are not adding up because our top intelligence agency is making up facts,” he said. “Let me just say this. I find it deeply regrettable that made-up facts and the investigations based on the made-up facts are being publicized.”

Park added that the NIS, which the Moon administration had “succeeded in reforming,” was becoming politicized due to “certain influences.”

Suh, who also led the Office of National Security at Moon’s Cheong Wa Dae, said he believed the administration at the time was “forthcoming about all the facts.”

“There is nothing the administration could gain by branding this case as a North Korea defection. There is no reason to do that,” he said.

But in one of the responses to reporter questions asking if the special intelligence or SI reports contained references to North Korea defection, Park said that in his opinion, it would be “convenient for the Moon administration” if they had.

“I think that it would work out in the Moon administration’s favor if that were the case. I was in all of the meetings and yet I do not recall discussions about defection coming up. I was only 52 days in (since taking office as the NIS director) so I didn’t really understand fully what special intelligence was, but I do not remember that,” he said.

Park added that it was the Coast Guard that later suggested that the fisheries official may have attempted to defect to the North.

The former Cheong Wa Dae’s Office of National Security director, Noh Young-min, said at the same press conference that he remembers the word “defection” being in the SI reports. The SI reports looked like “rough drafts” written in incomplete sentences, he said.

“Again, I’m relying on my memory. But defection was not the main point of discussion at the early meetings.”

Thursday’s joint press conference marks the first time that Moon’s national security and defense officials spoke out since the accusations were brought against them. In a related investigation, Seo Wook, who was the Minister of National Defense then, was arrested.

In a joint statement released on the same day -- signed by ex-NIS directors Park and Suh, then-Minister of Unification Lee In-young, Noh and another former director of Moon’s Office of National Security, Chung Eui-yong -- they said that the Yoon administration went on a “spree of political retaliation.”

In a briefing following the press conference, Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers who served at Moon’s Cheong Wa Dae accused the current administration of “groundless nitpicking” and “political prosecution,” and warned that they would be legislating in response.

Rep. Park Beom-kye, Moon’s last minister of justice, said he would be pushing a bill to bar the state audit and inspection authorities from looking into retired public officials. Once proposed, passing the bill would be adopted as the Democratic Party’s platform next week.

In an Oct. 14 report, the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea said the maritime police, intelligence and defense authorities tried to cover up evidence in the fisheries official’s case, and that they failed to respond properly.

The justice minister-turned-lawmaker argued that both heads of the NIS, Park and Suh, are members of the public who do not currently hold official positions, and that it was “against the law” to inspect them.

“This clearly has been an unlawful inspection against private citizens. The bill I’m proposing will have such unlawful inspection activities punished,” he said.

Rep. Ko Min-jung, who was spokesperson for Moon’s Cheong Wa Dae, claimed that it was “becoming clear day by day” that the ongoing investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of the fisheries official are “baseless.”

“Because the values upholding our society are being ignored and falling apart, our party has but no choice to put a stop to this through legislation,” she said.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)