Investigation into Eavesdropping by the Current Administration Is Underway

Regarding the illegal eavesdropping cases by the National Security Planning Agency (NSPA) since the launch of the current administration, President Roh Moo-hyun said on August 8 that since both the intelligence agency and the prosecutors were conducting investigations, the result would soon tell us whether the scandal was true or not.

In the emergency press meeting he volunteered to convene at Cheong Wa Dae, the president stressed the investigation first by the prosecutors, saying that when there turns out to be suspicions regarding the results by the prosecutors’ investigation into the tapping cases, then special councils or investigation of state affairs would be necessary.

However, as the four opposition parties, including the Grand National Party, the Millennium Democratic Party, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), and the United Liberal Democrats, have agreed to propose a bill for the special council system on August 9 for fact-finding regarding the eavesdropping scandal, a highly heated dispute between the opposition parties and the ruling party is expected during the consultation process.

“This eavesdropping case is a systematically committed crime by the government power against its people, which is human rights violation far worse than the cozy relations between politics and business. This is a fundamental problem, and apart from carrying out related investigations, a special law is necessary in order to decide whether to make the tapped content go public and to retain it,” said the president.

This remark can be understood in line with the ruling Uri Party’s suggestion to organize a third party (or fact-finding committee) and then to let it decide the scope of the contents to be open to public.

Furthermore, regarding the released NSPA’s taping during the Kim Dae-jung administration, he said that there was no political conspiracy, criticizing that provoking such ideas repeatedly is itself the populism and demagogy.

“The scandal has nothing to do with the government, not to mention that I have nothing to do with it, either. There were no political intentions or conspiracy,” the president stressed.

However, the opposition parties have responded that the president’ remark is hard to believe.

Meanwhile, the four opposition parties held a vice floor leader meeting on the same day and decided to propose a bill for the special council system on August 9. The four opposition parties have agreed in the meeting that making the tapped content go public would be made by the special prosecutor, and that investigation results related to the suspicious cases regarding eavesdropping by the government and even the statute-barred tapping cases would be also released since they were illegal.

In addition, regarding the cases raising suspicions that tapping by the government is still undergoing, the opposition parties have agreed in principle to introduce the investigation of state affairs.

Jung-Hun Kim Seung-Heon Lee jnghn@donga.com ddr@donga.com