The presidential office considers inspection and reprimand of NIS officials

In response to the exposure of the intelligence activities of a National Intelligence Service agent who contacted Korean-American North Korea expert Sue Mi Terry, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the presidential office said it would consider inspecting and reprimanding those involved, calling it “something that happened during the previous Moon administration.”

A presidential office senior official met with reporters the same day. When asked if there was any government-wide inspection or reprimandation for issues such as the exposure of NIS agents, the official said, “The photo was taken during the previous Moon Jae-in administration. So, we are in a situation where we are inspecting and reprimanding actions taken by the Moon administration. It's a good point, and we'll look into it.” The official added, “I think this all happened because after the Moon Jae-in government took power at the time, it removed all the agents capable of professional outside activities from the NIS and replaced them with amateurs.”

Within a day, the presidential office's quick reference to past government accountability appears to emphasize that the alleged bribery involving Researcher Terry, as noted in the arraignment notice, is unrelated to the current Yoon administration. The presidential office emphasizes that the expensive gifts, including luxury coats and purses, were given to Terry from 2019 to 2021 before the current government took office.

In response, Rep. Park Jie-won of the Democratic Party of Korea, who served as the head of the National Intelligence Service under the Moon Jae-in administration, said, “For the presidential office to take the initiative and escalate the issue by talking about ‘inspection and reprimand of Moon Jae-in's NIS’ is the worst solution that does not serve the national interest. Park added, “The government should closely analyze why U.S. prosecutors indicted activities that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned Terry about ten years ago during the Park Geun-hye administration, and whether our intelligence agencies and government were aware of and responded to the indictment in advance.”


Na-Ri Shin journari@donga.com