Investigation Organization Must Specify Method and Place When Wiretapping

The process and the conditions for the investigation organizations to claim for the communication record of individuals and the wiretapping will be strengthening from this month.

The Ministry of Justice announced that the government would implement the revised Enforcement Ordinance of the Communication Privacy Protection Law after having approval of the Cabinet by the end of this month.

The revised bill obligates that the investigation organizations must specify the methods and places of wiretapping in detail when they request for the cooperation of communication businesses such as Korea Telecom. The types, objects, and the period were broadly described in the request form by now. In addition, when prosecutors or detectives request the related businesses for phone numbers of the receivers and the dates of the communications, they must have an approval from chief prosecutors of the district prosecution offices.

And the emergency wiretapping period, currently 48 hours for the investigation institution to receive a warrant from a court, is reduced to 36 hours. If failed in receiving the warrant, they must stop the wiretapping immediately.

In addition, aftermath inspections and controls by the National Assembly were also remarkably strengthened.

The reports to the National Assembly by the Justice Minister and other related Ministers must include the statistic data such as the approval numbers and rejection numbers for the wiretapping and the related business sector also must submit the same report to the Minister of Information and Communication twice a year.

When investigation organizations introduced new devices for wiretapping, they must report the details of types and names, quantity, directions and the dates, to the Minister of Information and Communication and the Information Committee of the National Assembly.

The revised bill also clarified the items of `communication verification material,` which the investigation organizations can request for, as log documents of computer communication and Internet, location trace materials, and the connected location trace materials.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com