Allegations of Promotion Favoritism for Intelligence Brigade Commander Denied as "Untrue... Serious Damage to Reputation"
Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik stated on the 8th regarding the leak of the Black Agent list by a civilian employee of the Armed Forces Intelligence Command, "There is no significant gap in intelligence operations."
Minister Shin appeared at the National Assembly's National Defense Committee plenary session on the 8th and responded to a question from Kang Dae-sik, a member of the People Power Party, saying, "Most things have been normalized," and added, "However, we plan to strongly implement overall reforms and follow-up measures in light of this incident." He also said, "I apologize to the public for the leak of classified information about Black Agents and the disgraceful behavior of the Intelligence Command."
Earlier, the National Intelligence Service detected signs of information leakage by civilian employee A of the Intelligence Command in June and notified the military. The Defense Counterintelligence Command confirmed that personal information of agents involved in North Korea-related intelligence work had been leaked to a Chinese individual. On the same day, the Counterintelligence Command sent A to military prosecution on charges of violating the Military Secrets Protection Act and general treason and espionage under the Military Criminal Act.
Regarding the recent legal dispute between Intelligence Command Commander B and subordinate Brigade Commander C, Democratic Party member Kim Byung-joo stated, "There are three core suspicions, all of which involve allegations that Minister Shin Won-sik was involved." Kim claimed that Minister Shin, who is a classmate from the Korea Military Academy, helped Brigade Commander C's promotion at the request of a retired general and that subsequently, Brigade Commander C allowed this retired general to use the Intelligence Command office known as the so-called 'An-ga.'
In response, Minister Shin said, "The allegation that there was a promotion request is a serious damage to my honor," and added, "It is not true." Regarding criticism that Minister Shin responded lukewarmly despite being informed of the conflict between Commander B and Brigade Commander C, he said, "The Chief of Intelligence Headquarters decided to switch to a formal investigation, which I immediately approved, and I understand that the investigation was requested the next day," and questioned, "If the suspicion of lukewarm response were true, how could I have approved it as soon as I received the report?"
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