Former chiefs of NIS, Seoul police indicted over election interference

Prosecutors indicted former National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon without detention Friday on charges of meddling in last year’s presidential election. 

Announcing the results of its two-month-long probe, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Won ordered his agents to put up online comments and express opinions on Internet posts over political issues. 

Among 1,760 posts by the NIS agents with hundreds of fake IDs from Sep. 19 to Dec. 14 last year, 67 are confirmed to have violated the election law.

Of 67, three comments criticized then-presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party; 26 vilified Rep. Lee Jung-hee and the United Progressive Party; and three attacked Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, an independent.

Won Sei-hoon, former head of the National Intelligence Service, leaves the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office after questioning on April 30. (Yonhap News)

“Former NIS chief Won, in his duty to counter psychological warfare schemes by North Korea, recognized even people or organizations whose policies or opinions are supported by pro-North Korean groups or North Korea as those supporting the North,” said the prosecutors’ office in its statement. 

Former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Yong-pan was also indicted on charges of violating election and police laws and abuse of authority. He was not detained. 

According to the prosecutors’ office, Kim tried to pressure a police team at Suseo Police Station in southern Seoul investigating NIS agents last year to hurriedly announce an interim result days before the election, clearing the agents of charges of smear campaigning. 

The district police said at the time that no evidence of political interference of the agents had been found. 

The SMPA also tried to hide computer hard disks handed over by the police team in an attempt to conceal the case. 

An NIS agent and a former agent who were involved in a revelation of inside information of the intelligence service were indicted without detention.

The prosecutors charged the current spy agent surnamed Jung for violating the laws on the agency and the election law, and the former agent surnamed Kim for violating the election law. 

Jung handed over documents detailing directions of Won and personal information of NIS officials to Kim. The prosecution judged that the inside information was used in election campaigns of an opposition party. 

Meanwhile, the prosecutors suspended the indictment of five NIS officials and a civilian who participated in and supported the online operations, considering that they were simply following Won’s directions. 

Mobilized to run the online smear campaigns under a warfare psychological team of the NIS, the agents put up a number of comments online advocating government-led projects while vilifying opposition political figures in an attempt to sway public opinion in favor of the ruling Saenuri Party as well as of then-presidential candidate and current President Park Geun-hye. 

Since they were directed by Won, the prosecutors decided not to indict them, according to the prosecutors’ office.

The prosecutors said that they would continue a separate probe into some Democratic Party officials who are accused of trapping an NIS agent within her residence on Dec. 11 while attempting to question her on the covert operations from outside. 

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)

South Korean Ex-Official Accused of Interfering in Election

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: June 11, 2013

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SEOUL, South Korea — State prosecutors said on Tuesday that they would indict a former chief of the South Korean National Intelligence Service on charges of illegally trying to influence the election in December in favor of Park Geun-hye, who was elected president as the governing party candidate.

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The former official, Won Sei-hoon, served as the top intelligence official under President Lee Myung-bak, Ms. Park’s predecessor, until February. He is accused of being involved in a secretive campaign in which intelligence agents and bloggers hired by the agency posted negative comments on the Internet about Ms. Park’s rivals.

No evidence has emerged that Ms. Park — who defeated her main opposition rival, Moon Jae-in, by one million votes — was involved in the operation. It also remained unclear whether or how much the online campaign, if it existed, influenced the result of the election. But the announcement added weight to a long-held suspicion among the political opposition that the intelligence agency engaged in illegal campaigning for Ms. Park.

Mr. Won will be charged with violating the national election law, which bans government officials from using their influence to affect an election, as well as a separate law that prohibits government intelligence officials from meddling in domestic politics, Lee Jin-han, a senior prosecutor, told the South Korean news media on Tuesday.

Mr. Won, who was not arrested, was not immediately available for comment. But he and the intelligence agency have denied interfering in the election on Dec. 19, saying the office’s online activities were part of normal psychological operations focused on North Korea.

Ms. Park’s office did not comment on the prosecutor’s announcement on Tuesday. During her campaign, Ms. Park and her party accused Mr. Moon and his opposition party of stirring up trouble when they first made accusations of illegal campaign activities by intelligence agents.

Mr. Moon’s opposition Democratic Party on Monday accused Ms. Park’s office and her justice minister of trying to intervene in the prosecutors’ investigation. Both the presidential office and prosecutors denied the claim.

Mr. Won is the latest in a series of former South Korean intelligence chiefs who have faced criminal indictments after leaving office. Several of them have been imprisoned.

The head of the National Intelligence Service, once used by the country’s military dictators as a main tool for silencing political dissent, remains one of the most powerful government jobs in South Korea. The intelligence agency has repeatedly vowed not to meddle in politics.

Police officials, who rejected the opposition’s accusation before the election, reversed their position in March, announcing that two low-ranking agents had illegally posted comments online criticizing the opposition candidates.

Prosecutors took over the investigation in April, as the opposition accused the police of whitewashing their inquiry so as not to offend Ms. Park.

Mr. Lee, the senior prosecutor, also said on Tuesday that the former head of the Seoul police, Kim Yong-pan, would be indicted on charges of illegally intervening in the police investigation.

The announcement of the charges came after prosecutors summoned Mr. Won and other senior intelligence officials for questioning and raided the spy agency’s headquarters in a Seoul suburb in April.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 12, 2013, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: South Korean Ex-Official Accused of Interfering in Election.

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Politics and Government

Park In-bee wins Wegmans LPGA Championship for second straight major

Park In-bee captured the Wegmans LPGA Championship for her second straight major title in New York on Sunday.

The world No. 1-ranked female golfer defeated Catriona Matthew of Scotland in the sudden death playoff at the Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, New York.

On the third playoff hole, the par-4 18th, Park scored a birdie to beat Matthew for her seventh career LPGA win and her third major overall. Park claimed US$337,500 in the winner's check.

On the decisive hole, Park found the fairway off the tee and reached the green in two, setting up the clinching birdie putt. Matthew landed her drive in the rough right of the fairway. With her second shot, Matthew found more thick grass next to the green, and her ensuing chip only advanced a few yards, well short of the green.

This is already Park's fourth win of the 2013 season in her 11th start. She leads the LPGA Tour in wins, money and the points race for the Player of the Year honors.

In April, Park won the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the season's first major tournament. That victory catapulted the 24-year-old to the top spot in the women's world rankings, making her the second South Korean, after Shin Ji-yai, to be the No. 1 female golfer.

Park's latest title marked the fourth straight time that a South Korean has captured an LPGA major. Choi Na-yeon won the U.S. Women's Open last July, followed by Shin at the Ricoh Women's British Open. Then Park has won the first two majors of this year.

Park and Matthew ended the regulation tied at 5-under 283. Park chopped her way over the final nine holes in regulation, committing three bogeys in that stretch, including one on the 18th, for a 3-over 75. Matthew shot a bogey-free final round of 4-under 68 in her final round.

After the first round was interrupted by rain, golfers were forced to play two rounds on the final day. After the first two rounds, Morgan Pressel of the U.S. held a two-shot advantage over Park.

The two were paired in the same group for the final 36 holes. Park took a one-shot lead over the American after the third round, as she shot a 4-under 68 while Pressel only managed a 1-under 71.

In the final round, the two were tied at 7-under after the front nine, with Park mixing in a birdie with two bogeys and Pressel trading a birdie with a bogey.

Pressel blinked first with a bogey on the par-4 10th, giving Park a one-shot advantage. Then the South Korean opened a two-stroke lead with a birdie on the par-5 11th, where Pressel only managed a par.

The American fell three shots behind Park with a bogey on the par-4 12th.

Park dropped a shot with a bogey on the par-4 14th, but Pressel missed a chance to cut the deficit to one when her birdie putt lipped out on the same hole.

Park began uncharacteristically missing fairways and greens, and had another bogey on the par-4 16th to slip to 6-under.

Pressel also had a bogey on the 16th and still trailed Park by two shots. By then, Matthew, playing two groups ahead of Park and Pressel, had quietly crept up the leader board and owned the club house lead at 5-under.

After missing a birdie putt on the par-5 17th, Park found rough off the tee on the 18th and missed the green with her third shot for another bogey.

In the playoff, though, Park recovered her usual accuracy, reaching the fairways on all three holes. Both players recorded pars on the first two playoff holes before Park dealt the clinching blow with the birdie on the third hole.

"It was one of the toughest days and I was very lucky to get into the playoff," Park said in a televised interview. "I wasn't hitting any fairways (late in the final round) but hit all three in the playoff."

The next LPGA major, the U.S. Women's Open, is set for June 27-30 in Southampton, New York. (Yonhap News)