Alleged Wiretapping by NIC

The majority Grand National Party (GNP) has created controversy by making an argument Nov. 28 that the National Intelligence Commission (NIC) has illegally wiretapped telephones of lawmakers, media outlets` senior officials and reporters and produced reports and it even presented evidence.

In a hurriedly held a news conference at the party main office, Kim Young-il, secretary general of the GNP, said, "The Kim Dae-jung government did the wiretapping on major political figures mainly this March when political circles was in disarray and has used the reports for political maneuvering purposes."

What the GNP presented as evidence on this day is an A4-sized 27-page report, which was divided into two, material 1 (5 cases) and material 2 (20 cases).

Kim insisted that material 1 is about telephone conversations between politicians of the MDP when the primaries were held in the MDP and material 2 is intended for political surveillance on the press.

Material 2 includes the names of 39 people (24 lawmakers, 2 senior officials in the media company and 8 reporters) over the phone, the dates of the phone calls and summary of the conversations.

According to the report, on the phone Kim Won-gi said March 11 to Park Ji-won about the importance of the competitive edge of Roh Moo-hyun, stand bearer of the pro-government Millennium Democratic party (MDP); Lee in-je asked help for the primary in Gwangju of Park Sang-cheon March 13; Ha Sun-bong talked about political issues including joining forces with the United Liberal Democrats with other politicians March 21.

On the other hand, conversations over the phone between politicians and reporters contain Kim Won-woong`s trial to request new talent in the party from Lee Hoi-chaang, presidential candidate of the GNP (March 11) and Rep. Kim Man-je`s hinting at his willingness for defection. Reporters whose names appeared in the material confirmed the contents of the conversations, but Rep. Kim Won-gi of the MDP made a case for manipulation.

Rep. Kim Young-il of the GNP said, "The report is only about wiretapping in March. But we have another one about bugging that was done recently. Now we are considering whether to make it public."

He urged President Kim to make an apology for the NIC` illegal eavesdropping, political maneuvering, attempts to destroy the opposition GNP and the press and dismiss and give punishment to Sin Geon, chief of the NIC, and other related people according to the law.

In a press release the NIC said, "We did eavesdropping only for criminal investigation purposes with a written order from court according to the law on protection of communication information. We want to clarify that we have never been engaged in political maneuvering or political intervention.

MDP spokesman Lee Nak-yeon criticized that the GNP was raising suspicions amid the falling approval rating of its candidate Lee Hoi-chang.

Spokesman Lee added, "Our party thinks that if there is any allegation of wiretapping, an investigation should be conducted. We already suggested a joint investigation by the NIC, the Board of Audit and Inspection and the Ministry of Information and Communication. The GNP should stop making groundless allegations and instead, accept our proposal of the thorough investigation.

Yeon-Wook Jung Jong-Hoon Lee jyw11@donga.com taylor55@donga.com