Snowballing Doubts over NIS’s Access to Protected Personal Information

The Dong-A Ilbo disclosed yesterday that the National Intelligence Service’s Overseas Operations Bureau Chief Kim Man-bok, who currently heads the spy agency, authorized access to the personal information of various citizens 2,614 times last August. The spy agency explained that incumbent Director Kim executed relevant authorization documents for other departments, and that was why his name showed up frequently.

In response, the Grand National Party complained and contended that the frequent authorization by Kim was to cover up the agency’s covert domestic political operations. The party raised an issue, and contended, “Kim was in charge of overseas operations. When he authorized the access, the agency could argue that it was not for domestic use.”

In a press release yesterday, the NIS explained, “Who authorizes what doesn’t mean much. It’s only for classification purposes. It does not have anything to do with what we actually do.”

“The overseas bureau chief authorizes reviews of personal information when it is necessary for national security, anti-terrorism, anti-corruption, and other espionage purposes. Other bureau chiefs have an individual’s personal information accessed for internal purposes, such as security clearances in the hiring and monitoring of asset increases,” added the agency.

The NIS went on to say, “Due to the nature of our operations, we cannot disclose details on our organizational structure. Then, one of the chiefs signs the authorization documents for the undisclosed departments. For example, predecessors to then Bureau Chief Kim authorized 2,500 releases in January 2005, 2,300 releases in August 2005, and 2,800 cases in January 2006. On average, 2,590 cases were authorized a month. So, the August figures were not different from those of the other months.”

The agency’s explanation, however, only leads to more and more doubts over the possibility of its abusive access to protected personal information. Since one of its bureaus reviewed 2,500 cases of personal information a month, as explained by the agency, the annual total amounted to 30,000 cases. Furthermore, the agency could access to the databases of 14 government agencies, and review 17 categories of an individual’s personal information. Thus, it is safe to say that the spy agency must have conducted hundreds of thousands of secret reviews of citizens’ personal information.

The Grand National Party held an emergency meeting yesterday, and decided to file a criminal claim with the DA’s office against then Bureau Chief, now NIS Director Kim Man-bok.

Senior GNP member Lee Byeong-seok told the Dong-A Ilbo over the phone, “We will convene the congressional Intelligence Committee. We want answers to why the foreign bureau chief needed to review the personal information of Korean citizens. Domestic operations do not fall within his job category. If necessary, we will hold an Assembly hearing.”

Lawmaker Lee Sang-bae (GNP), who first unearthed the abusive reviewing practice, disclosed that the NIS reviewed 2.6 million cases of the protected information in 2002, almost 5 million cases in 2004, and 24 million cases in 2006.

Rep. Lee argues, “The Roh administration has stressed only the bright side of the e-government system. Blindfolding the public with sweet talk, the administration has abused its power and randomly accessed citizens’ protected information.”

taylor55@donga.com