Investigations into Ilsim Group Scandal

A new fact about Jang Min-ho (also known as Michael Jang), a key player of the so-called “Ilsimhoe” espionage scandal in which former student activists are involved, was released. As Jang was found to have worked at two government affiliated organizations related to the IT industry for two years, some cast suspicion that key technologies might have been leaked to the North.

Jang joined the North Korean Workers’ Party when he visited the North for the second time in 1993, and the following year, he served for a year as the manager of the International Cooperation Department of the Korea Information and Technology Research Institute, an affiliated organization of the then Ministry of Commerce and Industry (currently Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy).

Based on this experience, he also worked as a marketing manager and was involved in the government’s IT policy making at iPark Silicon Valley, one of the global IT Korea promotion organizations founded by the Ministry of Information and Communication from May 1998 to October 1999.

In March this year, Jang became the CEO of the Korean subsidiary of MediaWill Technology, a U.S. mobile solution company whose main client is the Korea Information Security Agency, an affiliated organization of the Ministry of Information and Communication.

Before being hired as a marketing manager for iPark Silicon Valley, he organized the Ilsimhoe in 1997 and began collecting information in earnest. This aroused suspicion that he may have engaged in espionage for North Korea while working at government organizations and big companies.

Grand National Party lawmaker and member of the National Assembly Committee on Science, Technology, Information and Communication, Kim Young-sun argued, “When Jang was a marketing manager of iPark between 1998 and 1999, he advised Korean IT companies on overseas market penetration and was involved in supporting investment attraction activities. If he is a spy, it is possible that state-of-the-art technologies of Korea and the U.S. might have been leaked.”

It is also found that Jang was on the list of candidates written by the then ruling party in an effort to attract young and promising talents in every field in the early 1999, one year before the 16th general elections. According to the internal document of the ruling party obtained by Shindonga, the monthly magazine of The Dong-A Ilbo, in May 1999, Jang was classified as part of the experts group on the list.

Meanwhile, the National Intelligence Service is reportedly investigating into whether he tried to contact with Democratic Labor Party members through Ilsimhoe members and form a separate organization inside the party.

Reportedly, at least three members of the Democratic Labor Party have collaborated, and stolen many documents of every kind to give them to Jang.

woogija@donga.com