Seoul High Court Rules to Disclose Documents on MB's National Intelligence Service Involvement and Surveillance of KT Union

During the Lee Myung-bak administration, an appellate court ruling ordered the disclosure of documents containing evidence that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) interfered in KT Labor Union activities and surveilled civilians.

View of the National Intelligence Service in Naegok-dong, Seoul, on the 1st.

According to the legal community on the 19th, the Seoul High Court Administrative Division 3 (Presiding Judge Jeong Jun-young) dismissed the NIS director's appeal in the appeal trial of the information disclosure refusal cancellation lawsuit filed by Cho Tae-wook, Executive Director of the KT Labor Rights Center, and upheld the original ruling that ordered the cancellation of the refusal to disclose information except for non-disclosable information, thereby ruling in favor of the plaintiff.

Previously, the first trial court ruled that among the information requested by Executive Director Cho, information related to the NIS organization such as department names, names of persons in charge, and positions, as well as personal information such as names and titles of third parties other than the plaintiff, should be excluded from disclosure, but the rest should be disclosed. However, since Executive Director Cho changed the purpose of the request in the second trial, the appellate court amended the order of the first trial judgment to "The defendant's decision to terminate the information disclosure request made to the plaintiff on October 24, 2022, is canceled" when delivering the judgment.

The appellate court cited the first trial ruling and judged that "the requested information does not fall under non-disclosable information as defined in Article 8 of the National Intelligence Service Act and Article 9, Paragraph 1, Items 1, 6, and 7 of the Information Disclosure Act." First, the court stated, "The documents do not contain information related to the NIS's organization, location, or personnel, nor can such information be inferred from the documents."

The first trial court stated, "(The documents) contain information about the trends identified during the KT union chairman election and the KT union's efforts to withdraw from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), and it is difficult to see that their disclosure would infringe on personal privacy or freedom." The appellate court accepted the first trial court's judgment as is.

The appellate court further stated, "Considering that the KT union chairman election is a process of free expression of union members' will and should be conducted fairly and cleanly through democratic procedures, any part that conflicts with any legal interest or fundamental right and qualifies as a reason for non-disclosure must be specifically claimed and proven," adding, "However, refusal to disclose based on only general reasons as claimed by the defendant is not permitted."

It continued, "The NIS is a state agency, not a private business operator engaged in commercial activities, and the information in question consists of materials prepared by the NIS to understand the overall situation and candidate trends during the KT union chairman election, to establish forecasts and countermeasures, and materials related to the KT union's efforts to withdraw from the KCTU. Therefore, the content cannot be considered trade or business secrets," concluding, "There is no justifiable interest to refuse disclosure of information related to illegal interference in union activities by a state agency or civilian surveillance."

Executive Director Cho filed information disclosure requests with the NIS in November 2020 and June 2021, demanding the release of documents related to surveillance of himself and the KT union's withdrawal from the KCTU. The documents requested by Executive Director Cho were 14 documents produced by the NIS in 2008 during the Lee Myung-bak administration, including 'Trends and Prospects Related to the KT Union Chairman Election,' 'Trends of Expected Candidates for KT Union Chairman Cho Tae-wook and ○○'s Response Trends,' and 'Status of Member Support Activities for the Election of a Moderate Candidate as KT Union Chairman.'

However, in December 2020 and July 2021, the NIS partially redacted (blurring content to make it unreadable) some parts of the information requested by the plaintiff, citing that "the information requested by the plaintiff is non-disclosable under the Information Disclosure Act," and partially disclosed the rest to the plaintiff. In response, Executive Director Cho filed an administrative lawsuit demanding full disclosure, including the redacted parts.