Officials Search Mirim Team Manager’s House for Wiretap Tapes

Prosecutors who are investigating the so–called “X-file” scandal involving wiretaps by the Agency for National Security Planning (the current National Intelligence Service) said on July 29 that they secured 274 tapes suspected to be illegal recordings and 13 volumes of tape scripts in a search and seizure on July 27 of the house of Gong Un-young (58) located in Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province,. Gong headed the National Security Planning Agency`s secret Mirim surveillance team.

The findings contradict what then-officials at the National Intelligence Service contended, which is that they withdrew and burned up most of the tapes and scripts from Gong in 1999. Accordingly, this case seems to be creating a further stir.

The Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors Office revealed that they seized 274 tapes which are 120 minutes long and 200-300 pages of scripts in 13 volumes related to the former illegal wiretapping at the Agency for National Security Planning. Deputy general manager Hwang Gyo-an at the Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors Office who leads the investigation said that those tapes and scripts were contained in two paper boxes and that analysis on them was in progress.

Hwang said they will make a thorough investigation of how the illegal tapes were made and kept, and disclose the real facts of the case.

Prosecutors are also investigating the possibility of the tapes and scripts being copied and leaked out.

On that day, the prosecution arrested Korean-American Park In-hoe (William Park, 58) on a charge (Telecommunications Security Protection Act violations and attempted blackmail) of receiving money and other valuables from Samsung in exchange for handing over illegal wiretapping tapes

The prosecution has sent investigators to Gong, who is hospitalized after attempting to kill himself, to check on how he is doing, and plans to visit and investigate him soon.

It is said that they also prohibited Kim Hyun-cheol, a son of the former president Kim, Young-sam, known as a man behind the scenes of the reconstruction and management of the Mirim team, and Lee, Won-jong, then-Senior Presidential Secretary for Political Affairs, from leaving the country.

In addition, the prosecution is also said to have banned Cheon Young-taek, then-National Intelligence Service chief, and Par Ji-won, then-Minister of Culture and Tourism, from leaving the country to investigate the process in which the National Intelligence Service withdrew and destroyed the tapes and scripts from Gong in 1999.

A prosecution official said an additional five or six people were prohibited from leaving the country other than about 10 figures affiliated with the Agency for National Security Planning who the National Intelligence Service banned from leaving the country.

woogija@donga.com