Jo Eung-cheon "US Wiretapping Issue, Must Speak Up as a Sovereign Nation"

"US Allies Also Collect Intelligence"

Jo Eung-cheon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out regarding the U.S. wiretapping and eavesdropping issues, "The United States has always made efforts to collect information not only on hostile countries but also on its allies," but emphasized that we must speak up as a sovereign nation.

On the 11th, Jo said on SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show,' "Even (Germany's) Merkel and (France's) Macron were wiretapped, and Merkel strongly protested to President Obama in 2021, which was a significant incident."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He added, "During the Cold War era, there was a global communication surveillance network called Echelon, which evolved into Prism from 2007. This was exposed by Snowden, and the U.S. operates quite a few intelligence reconnaissance satellites," and "In our country, during President Park Chung-hee's era in 1976, there was the so-called 'Korea Gate,' where our country was openly surveilled, which made President Park Chung-hee extremely furious."

The Blue House stated that it will verify the facts and take necessary measures. Jo said, "With the South Korea-U.S. summit approaching, restoring or strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance is being promoted as the greatest diplomatic priority and achievement," and "However, aggressively pursuing this issue, demanding prevention of recurrence and apologies from the U.S., may not align with the direction of restoring the alliance. It seems that is why the Blue House's response has been lukewarm."

He continued, "Looking at foreign media a little, it seems there is no need for further fact-checking, and while I understand the situation, as a sovereign nation, we must firmly say what needs to be said," and "If I were in charge, knowing that everything will eventually be exposed and revealed, I would advise against making excessive demands and suggest handling it quietly behind the scenes."

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