Ruling lawmakers try to give spy agency full access to mobile exchanges

By Jun Ji-hye





Rep. Suh Sang-kee

Another "Big Brother" law is in the making, enabling the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to gain lawful access to all mobile communications.

This legislative initiative has triggered strong opposition at the National Assembly and from civic groups because of privacy concerns.

They pointed out controversies facing the spy agency over its alleged meddling in politics, on top of the revelation about the U.S. government's indiscriminate eavesdropping on domestic and foreign targets.

On Friday, Rep. Suh Sang-kee of the ruling Saenuri Party submitted a revision to the relevant law that would impose an annual fine of 2 billion won or $1.9 mil. on a carrier if it fails to install a tapping system within two years.

Currently, the installation is left up to the carriers with no fines.

"Among the total use of communication devices, the use of mobile phones accounts for more than 75 percent. But under the current system, the NIS members are in trouble trying to round up spies and terrorists because it is difficult to inspect mobile phones," Rep. Suh said.

All 13 ruling party members who belong to the Assembly's Intelligence Committee and a special committee on the NIS signed on the bill.

The Saenuri Party plans to seek bipartisan support for the bill through the NIS reform committee. The committee was established last month to reform the NIS, which has been accused of intervening in the 2012 presidential election campaign and other sensitive political issues.

However, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) opposed the bill saying it presents significant privacy concerns.

"There have been cases that the NIS unlawfully tapped or inspected telephones. We cannot even talk about Suh's revision unless reliable measures to prevent any unlawful activities are created," said Rep. Moon Byeong-ho, DP's representative of the committee.

The supporters of the bill argued that it was an attempt to prevent the NIS's activities from being too much controlled as a result of the seven revisions. Rivals agreed to revise seven relevant laws at the end of December to retool the agency, and promised to continue their discussion about the details.

In their upcoming discussions, a fierce political battle seems unavoidable as the DP, which desperately wants to reduce the power of the spy agency, is already opposing the ruling party's proposal.

The parties are still at loggerheads over whether or not the NIS's anticommunist investigative functions should be transferred to other entities.

The DP wants to transfer the agency's investigative rights to the prosecution and police, and tasks of coping with cyberterrorism to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

The governing camp said the DP's demands are absurd.

"The NIS is the only organization that collects a high level of intelligence to apprehend North Korean spies," said Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, vice floor leader of the ruling party.

In their early discussions last month, the Saenuri Party accepted the DP's biggest demand of barring NIS members' free access to private entities such as media outlets and government institutes for intelligence-gathering.

The largest opposition party believed that such excessive power for the agency was the main cause for its political intervention.

The governing camp also agreed to mandate harsh punishment on NIS agents if they meddle in domestic politics. Violators will face to up to seven years in prison.