South Korea's spy agency will seek to change its name and relinquish all of its investigative authority this year as part of efforts to revamp the institution long accused of political interference and to restore public trust, officials said Wednesday. The National Intelligence Service said it will push for a revision to the law governing its operations. "We will do our best to be reborn as a national security agency that will dedicate itself to the nation and citizens, and can be loved by citizens, and in which NIS members themselves can take pride," it said in a press release.

Under the plan, the NIS will change its name to one roughly translated as the "external security intelligence agency." It will also delegate or abrogate all of its investigative rights, including anti-espionage, which critics say compromised citizens' human rights in some cases.The NIS also delineated its intelligence activities as concerning domestic affairs, North Korea, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, international criminal organizations, the defense industry and economic security."We have decided to change the agency's name to show our resolve to focus only on the protection of national security and interests through shedding the past negative image associated with its alleged political interference and breaking with accumulated ills," the agency said."Based on our reflection on the past investigation methods that were illegally used in such cases of evidence tempering and rights violations, we have decided to delegate to other agencies or abolish all of our investigative authority," it added.The NIS, in addition, reaffirmed that it will establish an institutional platform to ban any activities that pry into government and public organizations, civic groups, media outlets and enterprises.Meanwhile, the National Assembly's intelligence committee agreed on a reduction of some 68 billion won ($62.8 million) in next year's budget for NIS' "special activities."The reduction appears to be in connection with the ongoing prosecutorial probe into the suspicion that part of the money has been misused. (Yonhap)