National Intelligence Agency Going Backward

As it has been revealed that K, an official at the National Intelligence Service (NIS) looked up property transaction records of Lee Jae-jeong, brother-in-law of former Seoul mayor and presidential bidder of Grand National Party Lee Myung-bak, investigators are saying that the task force K belongs to reminds them of former investigation team of National Police Agency, commonly known as “Sajikdong Team,” named after its location.

The NIS announced in a statement on July 13 that the task force is given the duty of “garnering information on high-level government official’s corruption cases.” The duty is exactly what the Sajikdong Team was created for, and why it was closed down. The information gathering created a lot of political controversy back then.

The Sajikdong Team belonged to an investigation division in the NPA, but was effectively headed by the Presidential Secretary for the Judiciary (or the Presidential Secretary for Petitions). Its work was to monitor and investigate corruption cases committed by the president’s relatives and high-level government officials.

The NIS also said that the task force team would have legal support to detect and punish corruptions of local assembly legislators and local administrators, and high-level government officials, such as officials of vice-minister rank.

The process is exactly the same as the Sajikdong Team’s. In the past, it made private inquiries into high-level government official corruption scandals upon demands of the presidential office and reported this to the prosecution and police to allow them to take legal actions.

Meanwhile, the Grand National Party (GNP) argued on July 15 that the NIS operated at least three teams similar to the TF team to screen the opposition party’s presidential candidates, including former Mayor Lee.

The GNP official said, “The so-called Lee Myung-bak team is not actually one team, but includes numerous teams, such as a team to monitor governmental materials like those of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and the National Tax Service, a team to gather information related to the former Mayor Lee, and other teams.”

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