[imText1]Despite recent criticism of former chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Kim Man Bok’s recent pre-election visit to Pyongyang, the future role of the NIS and other intelligence gathering services are becoming important with regards to North Korea’s democratization.
At a debate sponsored by the Korean National Information Institute entitled “The Re-construction of National Intelligence in the 21st Century,” Lee Sang Hyun from the Sejong Institute stated: “The importance of domestic intelligence activities will be growing as the pro-North Korea faction’s ability to influence policy is diminishing.”
Lee foresaw the need to increase intelligence activities directed at the North and organizations that support the North, because the threat still exists and there is a need to collect information and stop espionage.
Lee Jung Hoon, the editor of Monthly Shindonga, added, “70 percent of the president’s mind is devoted to the economy, 10 percent to education, and the rest to the alliance with the US. He does not have any specific plans to deal with North Korea within the framework of the National Intelligence Service.
“President-elect Lee has to study the methods of the unification and North Korean democratization movements as a part of North Korean intelligence activities, if he really wants to pursue unification,” said Lee
Jeh Sung Ho, a professor from Joongang University, discussed the legal and systematic foundation of NIS involvement. He asserted, “The secretive approach that must be taken with regards to the inter-Korean summits and other important events is inevitable. In order to pursue these events, the regularization and systemization of these kinds of secret activities are needed.
Song Dae Sung, another researcher from the Sejong Institute, said, “In the past, the quality, tasks and roles of the Korean intelligence organization were up to the will of the president. The next president should re-equip the NIS’s position and roles, especially those parts that were watered-down due to changes in the alliance with the US during the Roh administration”
