Fwd: [Hankyoreh, July 2] The NIS as the director’s personal fiefdom english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/594058.html National Intelligence Service (NIS) agents referred to former director Won Sei-hoon as “the man who came from the sky.” The moniker had been coined to poke fun at the fact that Won was a close confidante of former President Lee Myung-bak and became director through a so-called “parachute” appointment in Feb. 2009, immediately after the Lee administration had been shaken by the candlelight vigils protesting the import of US beef. But the term stuck as a symbol of a man who turned the intelligence agency into his own personal fiefdom. For four years and one month, he effectively pushed NIS employees to meddle in politics in order to suppress the left and wielded his authority over personnel management like a bulldozer, judging people according to how loyal they were to the administration. [..] From the beginning of his tenure as director, the confidant of Lee Myung-bak used “politics of fear” to turn the NIS into an organization that was loyal to him. In May 2009, a level-two manager in the office of investigation at the NIS, surnamed Yun, was reprimanded. This was triggered by a single comment that he had made over lunch with an agent from the office of inspection. “In some ways, the government went too far in the Apr. 3 suppression on Jeju Island,” Yun had said. The office of inspection interpreted the remark as “leftist,” and Won put Yun on the list of agents to be reassigned. Yun was no rookie, either, having a great deal of seniority in the office of investigation. “There wasn’t anyone else who had Yun’s expertise on investigations into spy rings. He was an old hand in the office of investigation, and he was reprimanded for a ridiculous reason,” NIS agents said. “After this, there was a lot of talk at the NIS about how it wasn‘t even safe to eat lunch with the other employees.” Yun was placed on the waiting list for reassignment, and he ultimately left the NIS. In short, a high-ranking NIS official who had investigated numerous spy rings had been driven out of the organization for being too leftist. [..]
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 02:39:25 +0000
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