[Opinion] Defense Security Command

“A security risk who has an ambiguous ideology and has always resorted to trickery and imposture over the 30 years of his political career. You can never trust him,” reads a civilian inspection report on an opposition party member by the Army Security Command (ASC). Private Yoon Seok-yang of the ASC exposed the report in October 1990. The ASC was found to have inspection reports on some 1,300 civilians largely consisting of politicians, professors, religious figures and activists. Korean people, who believed that the country established democracy after a pro-democratic resistance movement in June 1987, realized that legacies of the past dictatorship remained.

Along with the basement of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and the interrogation rooms of the police in Namyeong-dong, the ice storage rooms of the ASC were notorious places where numerous opposition party members, dissidents and student activists were detained and tortured after the October Revitalizing Reforms in 1972. Triggered by Yoon’s disclosure, the ASC changed its name to the Defense Security Command (DSC) and declared not to conduct investigation with a political motive. However, it came under fire once again with Lt. Lee Ji-moon’s divulgence in 1992 on the DSC’s intervention in the parliamentary elections. Chiefs of the DSC, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, became president one after another, making it a breeding ground for “militicians.”

Military investigation and intelligence bodies, which budded off from “the special investigation unit” launched in May 1948, were operated by the Special Mission Unit in the 1950s and the Counterintelligence Unit in the 1960s. After a group of North Korean agents’ attempted attack to the presidential residence at Cheong Wa Dae on Jan. 21, 1968, each of the army, navy and air forces established their own security command. In October 1977, the three separate security commands merged as the Defense Security Command because of the withdrawal of the U.S. forces stationed in Korea. Although the DSC’s core duties were protection of military secrets, prevention of espionage and subversion, and investigation into irregularities in the army, it spent most of its resources in interfering in politics and investigating and torturing civilians until the establishment of the civilian rule in 1993.

An official of the DSC said on Thursday, “A few espionage agents can destroy the country.” The official added that the DSC will beef up its effort to prevent espionage. Out of some 4,500 spies caught since the establishment of the Republic of Korea, 43 percent of them have been caught by the DSC. However, many people are not aware of the DSC’s involvement in catching North Korean agents as it has hardly caught any spies during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations due to the sunshine and engagement policies pursued by the two administrations. The president will be receiving a face-to-face report from the head of the DSC again. We hope the DSC will become the stronghold of security by dutifully carrying out its original mission.

Editorial Writer Kwon Soon-taek (maypole@donga.com)