Park Hyung-jun Claims "NIS's Political Manipulation"... NIS Responds "Baseless Allegation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Regarding the Democratic Party of Korea's accusation against Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon for 'involvement in illegal surveillance by the National Intelligence Service (NIS),' the NIS responded to Park's statement calling it "a political conspiracy by the Democratic Party and the NIS" by declaring it a "baseless claim."

On the 14th, the NIS issued an official statement titled "Please do not summon the NIS to politics with baseless claims," expressing this position.

Earlier, during the April by-elections, the Democratic Party filed a complaint with the prosecution against Mayor Park for allegedly denying involvement in illegal surveillance by the NIS, accusing him of false statement under the Public Official Election Act. In response, Mayor Park rebutted, calling it "a political conspiracy by the Democratic Party and the NIS to target Busan, a strategic key point ahead of the presidential election."

Mayor Park also claimed, "A politically biased person was appointed as the head of the NIS Inspection Office, and unknown document contents were leaked and reported."

The NIS stated, "These are false claims that seriously damage the honor of the NIS," adding, "Above all, it is a harmful act to summon the NIS, which has been reflecting on its dark past and practicing political neutrality, once again to the political arena."

The NIS also explained the circumstances under which the document contents were disclosed. The NIS said, "In response to an information disclosure request, in February of this year, we received a demand from the Intelligence Committee to conduct an inspection and report on the 'NIS information activity documents beyond the scope of duties related to the 18th National Assembly members during the Lee Myung-bak administration.'" and "Accordingly, the NIS began a duty inspection, and separately, the National Assembly Intelligence Committee requested the submission of all investigation results from the 2017 Anti-Corruption Task Force (TF)."

It continued, "From June 14 to June 25, the NIS allowed the Intelligence Committee to review and access these materials for two weeks," adding, "During this process, some contents of the 'illegal surveillance of civilians opposing the Four Major Rivers Project' document included in the inspection report were reported by the media."

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