[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Members of the Democratic Party belonging to the National Assembly Intelligence Committee expressed their views on the sole passage of the amendment to the National Intelligence Service Act, which includes the transfer of counterintelligence investigative authority, stating, “We hope this amendment will strengthen the areas the National Intelligence Service should handle and serve as an opportunity to permanently end its wrongful ‘dark history.’”
Democratic Party members of the Intelligence Committee, including Kim Byung-gi, Kim Kyung-hyup, Noh Woong-rae, and Yoon Gun-young, held a press briefing at the National Assembly on the morning of the 25th, explaining their stance on the sole passage by saying, “It would have been better if the ruling and opposition parties had agreed to pass the bill, but efforts to reach a consensus beforehand would have made it more meaningful.”
Earlier that morning, regarding the People Power Party’s emergency press briefing titled ‘Urgent Press Conference on the Deterioration of the National Intelligence Service Act,’ Representative Kim Byung-gi said, “Except for the investigative authority issue, all provisions of the National Intelligence Service Act amendment were agreed upon 100 percent by both ruling and opposition parties.” He explained, “This amendment abolished ‘domestic intelligence’ from the scope of duties, removing the root cause of the National Intelligence Service’s involvement in domestic politics and surveillance. While maintaining the counterintelligence standards as before, it prevents investigations to block human rights violations, transforming the agency so that the state can dedicate itself to the people, which is highly significant.”
Regarding the transfer of investigative authority, he said, “When the three-year grace period for investigative authority was proposed, there was no strong resistance from the People Power Party.” He added, “The People Power Party insisted on having an independent external agency with separate budget, personnel, and investigative authority, while the Democratic Party proposed a three-year grace period, considering the newly established National Investigation Headquarters within the National Police Agency as a practically independent body.” He further noted, “We began discussing whether our views were somewhat aligned, but ultimately, the talks broke down.”
Representative Kim Kyung-hyup also explained, “Regarding the transfer of investigative authority, the final disagreement was whether it should be transferred to the National Police Agency or to a separate external investigative agency as the People Power Party advocated.”
The Democratic Party aims to submit the amendment at the plenary session on the 27th and pass it at the plenary session scheduled for the 9th of next month.
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