Under Roh, Wiretapping and Telephone Call Tracing Experience Drastic Increase

It has been reported that investigation offices have increasingly used telephone call record tracing and wiretapping since the start of Roh’s regime.

“Compared to the year 2002 during the Kim Dae-jung Government, the investigation offices’ wiretapping has increased by 10 percent and telephone call record tracing by 36 percent,” said GNP representative Kwon Young-seh of the Science, Technology, Information, and Telecommunications Committee at the National Assembly, while publicizing documents provided by Information and Communications Ministry.

According to the document, the current government’s investigation offices have had 1,696 cases of wiretapping in 2003 compared to 1,528 cases in 2002: an increase of 10 percent. Intelligence offices including the National Intelligence Agency have also had 474 cases of wiretapping in 2003, up from 459 cases in 2002.

Telephone call tracing has also increased by 36 percent, from 122,541 cases in 2002 to 167,041 cases in 2003.

Wiretapping and telephone call record tracing have increased more in the second half of the year from July to December than in the first half of the year. The first half experienced 77,118 tracing cases compared to 89,923 cases in the second: an increase of 16 percent, Wiretapping cases in which the agency did not get court approval increased from one case in the first half to six in the second half.

The illegal cases of tracing without approval from regional police headquarters greatly increased, from one case in the first half to 140 cases in the second half.

“Judging from these situations, the case where National Intelligence Agency, at the request of the National Security Council (NSC), traced telephone records of reporters to Cheong Wa Dae, could not be coincidental,” said Kwon.

Min-Hyuk Park mhpark@donga.com