Truth and Reconciliation Commission: "National Intelligence Service Spied on Sewol Ferry Victims' Families and Civic Groups"

NIS "Will Support Fact-Finding"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] The National Intelligence Service (NIS) conducted illegal intelligence activities by monitoring the movements of private citizens, including families of the Sewol ferry disaster victims, civic groups, and media outlets, according to the investigation results released by the Special Investigation Commission on Social Disasters (SICSD).

On the 2nd, the SICSD announced an interim report on the investigation results of intelligence agencies' surveillance of civilians at the 114th plenary committee meeting. The NIS supported the SICSD by allowing access to over 680,000 Sewol-related documents, which the SICSD reviewed in a de-identified state.

Previously, the NIS Reform and Development Committee's Task Force on Clearing Deep-rooted Evils denied the surveillance allegations, stating there was "no clear evidence that the NIS monitored Sewol-related organizations, families, or the special investigation committee." The Sewol Special Investigation Unit of the prosecution also concluded there was insufficient evidence, noting that "there was no indication of tailing, wiretapping, hacking, or pressure on families in the reports."

However, according to the SICSD, the NIS generated two Sewol-related reports on April 16, 2014, the day of the disaster, at 4:37 PM and 7:12 PM.

One of the documents partially disclosed by the SICSD included content such as "managing public sentiment and opinion to prevent the issue from escalating into government responsibility," and "minimizing dissatisfaction through proactive measures by managing victims' families and their surroundings."

Additionally, the NIS was found to have monitored media outlets' Sewol coverage trends and gathered detailed personal information about executives of the Sewol Countermeasures Committee, including their real names, political party affiliations, past occupations, personal relationships, and personalities, classifying their tendencies.

The report also recorded the past background and political leanings of the Sewol crew trial judge, and mentioned circumstances where the Blue House's Office of Public Relations requested media outlets to reduce the volume of Sewol coverage.

The SICSD's Sewol Truth Investigation Division reported, "Applying the criteria and concepts of illegal surveillance, the NIS, the Defense Security Command, and the police abused their intelligence-gathering functions, exceeding their duties by collecting information unrelated to their tasks. This included monitoring the dissatisfaction of Danwon High School victims' families and families affiliated with the Countermeasures Committee toward the government, opinions and trends regarding support for external civic groups, whether government-critical civic groups sympathized or refused support, exclusion of political remarks within the families' Countermeasures Committee, and movements toward dissent and politicization among families."

The NIS stated, "We will closely communicate and cooperate with the SICSD to support the truth-finding process. However, since we are providing materials to the SICSD under the relevant special law, the NIS does not individually verify or evaluate the factual accuracy of the provided materials and documents."