NIS Delivered Surveillance Documents on Kwak Nohyeon and Park Jaedong to Themselves... "Apology for Unfortunate History"

"Will Cooperate Fully with the Passage of the National Intelligence Service Act Amendment"
Park Ji-won: "The National Intelligence Service Must Never Intervene in Politics"

Park Ji-won, Director of the National Intelligence Service, is waiting for the start of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee's audit of the National Intelligence Service held at the NIS headquarters on the 3rd.

On the 18th, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) announced that it had provided related documents to former Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Gwak Nohyeon and editorial cartoonist Park Jaedong, who were illegally surveilled by the NIS during the Lee Myung-bak administration.

On the same day, the NIS sent 34 documents by registered mail to former Superintendent Gwak and cartoonist Park, including information on their personal activities. There were 30 documents related to former Superintendent Gwak and 4 documents related to cartoonist Park.

The NIS stated, "We once again bow our heads in apology and will cooperate to the fullest extent possible with the National Assembly’s passage of the amendment to the NIS Act to ensure that this unfortunate history does not repeat."

This action follows the Supreme Court’s public ruling on the 12th regarding the "request for disclosure of surveillance-related information" filed by the two individuals.

Previously, former Superintendent Gwak and cartoonist Park had requested the NIS to disclose whether sensitive information such as private life, political beliefs, and union membership was collected, whether personally identifiable information such as names, addresses, and resident registration numbers was collected, and whether a "blacklist" was created using the collected information. After being denied, they filed a lawsuit.

The NIS stated, "In the future, we will review and process lawful information disclosure requests according to relevant laws and the standards and procedures established by this precedent."

Additionally, the NIS said it will manage past domestic department information and materials in accordance with the Public Records Management Act and other laws, and will proceed with disposal procedures once related information disclosure requests and lawsuits are concluded.

The NIS also declared, "We will preemptively block information activities that exceed the scope of duties, such as political interference or civilian surveillance, throughout all work processes, and strictly punish any illegal acts."

Meanwhile, Park Jiwon, the NIS Director who marked his 100th day in office on the 5th, has expressed his intention to swiftly promote reform legislation to ensure that the NIS never intervenes in domestic politics.

Upon his inauguration, he abolished the domestic intelligence officer system that had access to government agencies and media outlets, in line with the Moon Jae-in administration’s reform policy that "the NIS does not intervene in politics." He also assigned lawyers as "Compliance Officers" to each department to check for legal violations. Furthermore, to strengthen the NIS’s scientific intelligence capabilities, he promoted the existing head of the Scientific Intelligence Headquarters to the 3rd Deputy Director position to empower the role.

At a press briefing for the 2nd NIS-Prosecutor-Police Reform Strategy Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office briefing room on September 9th, Director Park reiterated, "We will clearly establish by law that the NIS will never be involved in domestic politics under any circumstances."

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