“NIS Formed Task Force Right After Roh Administration Came to Office”

The different explanations between Cheong Wa Dae and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) about the NIS’s Corruption Eradicating Task Force, which has been under criticism for obtaining information about Kim Jae-jeong, the brother-in-law of former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak in August 2006 through the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, is provoking suspicion.

Kim Seung-gyu, former director of the NIS, said yesterday during an interview with Dong-A Ilbo that, “The TF was being run when I was appointed as NIS director (in July 2005),” adding, “As far as I know, the TF was formed right after Roh administration came to office, when my predecessor (Goh Yeong-gu) was in office.

Kim’s remark that the TF was formed right after the current government took office is contrary to the NIS’s official announcement saying that the team was organized in May 2004, about one year after President Roh assumed office.

In addition, Cheong Wa Dae’s announcement saying that it recently came to know that the NIS is running the task force is increasing suspicion over whether the TF existed in the first place or not.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said last Tuesday that, “Cheong Wa Dae came to know that the NIS is running the task force for the eradication of corruption when the case related to Kim Jae-jeong was reported,” adding, “The presidential chief civil secretariat didn’t know the operation either.”

Lawyer Park Jeong-gyu, who served as a presidential chief civil secretary in May 2004 when the task force team was formed, also said that, “I was not informed about the formation of TF in the NIS when I was in the secretariat at Cheong Wa Dae.”

However, the NIS stressed that, “For three years since its formation, the task force found about 420 clues that were key to corruption scandals and handed them over to law enforcement agencies such as the prosecution and police.” Regarding this, some point out that given such active involvement, it is very odd that the Presidential Chief Civil Secretariat, which has a duty to oversee NIS activities, didn’t know of its existence.

A source who retired from the NIS said that, “When the NIS formed the task force team, it didn’t use a title that hinted at the team’s activities, and thus, they just called them, ‘Team I’ or ‘Team 2,’” adding, “Sometimes they were called ‘a certain team’ for convenience among NIS members. It is quite strange that the NIS had a task force team that is called the Corruption Eradicating Task Force.”

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