Commotion over the KBS President Jung’s Involvement of a Spy

Doubt arose on October 2 that the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP) and the present National Intelligence Service (NIS) had followed the president of the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), Jung Yun-joo, who is creating a stir by broadcasting a piece beautifying Song Du-yul, who is in Germany, but under suspicion of espionage in the early 1990s at the administration conducted by the National Assembly.

Lawmaker Lee Won-chang at the Grand National Party (GNP) said at the Culture & Tourism Committee’s inspection of the administration about the KBS, “A certain Mr. Hwang, who was serving his sentence because of a social event ‘South Chosun Rulling Worker’s Party’ in May 1993, was disclosed because Hwang attempted to take out two 1.5x24 centimeter sized capsules, which contained instructions, by inserting them to a certain Mr. Go’s anal area, who was the chief organizer of the National Liberation Front and released from prison on probation,” and insisted, “The instruction warned that ‘the NIS is following you because they suspect you of being a spy’ and also raised an issue of seven to eight people who had espionage activity, and the third one of them being ‘Jung Yun-joo’.”

Lee also scolded, “The prosecutors who investigated that scandal testified to the fact that ‘Jung Yun-joo’ is ‘the President Jung,” and pressed hard, “Isn’t Jung also pursuing the same (pro-North-Korea) line like Hwang?”

“A president of the public broadcasting station must not take questionable thought and work,” and “President Roh is responsible for this because he appointed Jung, and Jung has to resign immediately,” Lee urged.

Upon hearing this, Jung said “I have met Hwang just one time because a executive member of the newspaper Hankyoreh told me that ‘Your name was raised with a certain professor Park related to Hwang’ in June 1993 when I returned to Korea for a while,” and refuted, “I inquired to the NIS but they did not need to investigate me.”

A lawyer who participated in the investigation at that time, on the other hand, confirmed, “Lawmaker Lee’s assertion is correct,” and, “We handed over the related information to the ANSP because we concluded that it was not suitable for the prosecutor to investigate the case, since the case bulged out during a justice.”

“Hwang and others were sentenced to severe punishment by revealing the delivery of the instruction,” and, “Even though Jung’s name was on the instruction, he was not punished because his status as a spy was not verified,” he added.

Also, lawmaker Lee Youn-seong of the GNP said “From 1977 to 1989, the chief director Lee Jong-soo of the KBS was the chairman of Germany “The Council For Democracy,’ which Song was the first chairman,” and raised suspicion that “Jung and Lee might have intervened in KBS’s sending out the beautification program of Song.”

In the meantime, to the topic on beautifying Song, Jung responded by saying, “KBS broadcasted it based on the court’s decision that said Song’s academic honesty, which insisting his propelling of the democratization movement not related to North Korea, and it is difficult for Song to be a senior member of North Korea’s ruling Workers Party,’ and, “I am very puzzled over his other factors, such as joining the Workers Party, as the result of the NIS, and I deeply apologize to the audience for giving rise to confusion and misunderstanding.”

Seung-Hoon Cheon Seung-Heon Lee raphy@donga.com ddr@donga.com