Park Ji-won Reaffirms "NIS Must Never Interfere in Domestic Politics"

NIS, Prosecution, and Police Reform Briefing
"Placement of Compliance Officers... Strengthening Budget Transparency"
"Formation of 5·18 Truth Investigation TF... Active Cooperation"

Park Ji-won, Director of the National Intelligence Service, attended the full meeting of the Intelligence Committee held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 20th of last month, preparing for the meeting.

Park Ji-won, Director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), reaffirmed on the 21st his commitment to complete reform legislation to prevent the NIS from ever interfering in domestic politics again.

At a press briefing held in the joint briefing room of the Government Seoul Office Complex during the 2nd NIS-Prosecution-Police Reform Strategy Meeting in the afternoon, Director Park said, "We will clearly stipulate by law that the NIS shall never be involved in domestic politics under any circumstances."

He promised, "To complete reforms based on laws and systems, we will make every effort to ensure that the amendment to the 'NIS Act,' which centers on banning political interference and transferring counterintelligence investigative authority, is passed by the National Assembly as soon as possible."

He added, "We will also transfer counterintelligence investigative authority smoothly and reorganize the security breach-related work system to prevent any security gaps."

Previously, the NIS had the 1st Deputy Director in charge of overseas operations and the 2nd Deputy Director responsible for North Korea-related matters. However, after Director Park's appointment, the 1st Deputy Director took over both North Korea and overseas intelligence collection functions, and the 2nd Deputy Director was reorganized to oversee counterintelligence and the Science Intelligence Bureau, which was elevated under the 3rd Deputy Director.

Director Park explained the reform achievements made since the Moon Jae-in administration, stating, "The NIS has not repeated its dark history."

First, he said, "We completely abolished the domestic intelligence officer system that had access to government agencies and media outlets and dismantled the domestic intelligence department."

He emphasized, "We have assigned lawyers as 'Compliance Officers' to each department to check and recheck the legality at every stage of planning, execution, and evaluation."

Minister of the Interior and Safety Jin Young (from the left), Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae, and Director of the National Intelligence Service Park Ji-won are listening to President Moon Jae-in's remarks at the 2nd National Intelligence Service, Prosecution, and Police Reform Strategy Meeting held at the Blue House on the afternoon of the 21st.

He also explained that the 'Budget Execution Control Review Committee' has been operated to enhance transparency in budget execution.

He said, "Regarding 22 cases of public suspicion, including the 'comment manipulation incident,' the truth has been investigated and those involved have been dealt with according to the law."

He introduced that a dedicated task force (TF) was formed to uncover the truth about the May 18 Democratic Uprising, and that the NIS provided related materials it possessed to the Truth Commission four times.

He added, "We will continue to discover and provide all materials related to the May 18 Democratic Uprising, and we are constantly communicating with parties involved in the Inhyukdang lawsuit and the families of the Sewol ferry victims."

He also announced that follow-up measures to establish a cooperative work system with the prosecution and police are being prepared without delay.

Plans to strengthen the NIS's scientific intelligence capabilities were also introduced.

Director Park explained, "We will dramatically enhance scientific intelligence capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and artificial satellites. To this end, we recently promoted the head of the Science Intelligence Bureau to the 3rd Deputy Director and reorganized the structure."

Director Park also said, "We will actively utilize the capabilities of women, youth, and persons with disabilities," adding, "Following the recent appointment of the first female deputy director, we are expanding female executives and are currently conducting recruitment procedures for persons with disabilities, aiming to complete them by the end of this year."

Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in, who presided over the 2nd NIS-Prosecution-Police Reform Strategy Meeting at the Blue House that day, said in his opening remarks, "Our government's reform of the power institutions has made irreversible progress."

At the meeting, President Moon urged, "The NIS should reorganize its organization and personnel so that it can focus its capabilities solely on the safety of the people and the nation as a specialized intelligence agency for North Korea and overseas."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.