Prosecutors Summon NIS Official

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday that it called in a National Intelligence Service official in charge of collecting private information in relation to former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak’s real estate speculation issue.

It is the first summoning of an NIS official in connection with the incident.

In the interrogation of the summoned official, prosecutors gained an overall understanding of the process by which the NIS requests other state agencies, including the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, and the National Tax Service, to collect private information, such as real estate ownership and tax payments. It also learned in what form the intelligence agency obtains the information from state agencies to distribute to its departments.

Furthermore, the prosecution is planning to summon another NIS official who collected information on Lee’s brother-in-law’s real estate ownership in the computer network of the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs last August.

It intends to focus on if the official obtained the information on the state of Kim’s real estate ownership as a part of the “Anti-corruption Taskforce” as the NIS claims, or as an attempt to dig up private information.

Meanwhile, after receiving written consent on July 24 from Lee’s elder brother residing in Tokyo on tracking his financial accounts, prosecutors are tracking his financial transactions since 1984.

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