A confirmation hearing for Lee Jong-seok, the nominee for Director of the National Intelligence Service, was held, during which the ruling and opposition parties engaged in a debate over the nominee's views on North Korea. The nominee stated the necessity to supplement the NIS's authority to conduct investigations, while also emphasizing the NIS's role in easing military tensions between North and South Korea. The ruling and opposition parties decided to adopt a report on the nominee’s confirmation hearing on the 20th.
The National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee held a confirmation hearing for the nominee on the 19th at the National Assembly. Being the first confirmation hearing since the Lee Jae-myung administration took office, the nominee, who has researched inter-Korean relations, has previously served as the 32nd Minister of Unification and the permanent chair of the National Security Council (NSC).
The opposition raised concerns about the nominee's views on North Korea. Song Eon-seok, the floor leader of the People Power Party, said, “Since the nominee has a pro-North orientation, can the agency function as a protector of Korea when he becomes the head of the NIS?” expressing worry that the NIS may become a liaison office for North Korea.
During the process, there were heated exchanges between members of the ruling and opposition parties. Kim Young-jin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea from the Intelligence Committee, stated, “It is absolutely unacceptable to refer to the NIS director nominee as a liaison officer for South Korea,” and confronted, “Is Yoon Suk-yeol a liaison officer for protecting criminals against insurrection?”
He continued, “While it is valid to verify past comments, asking questions about remarks made 10 or 20 years ago and whether one remembers them is not appropriate,” adding that “the scope of the questions itself seemed overly excessive.”
The nominee expressed that while he drew the line on the issue of transferring investigation authority back to the NIS, he acknowledged the need to strengthen the authority to conduct investigations. He also emphasized that the NIS would strive to improve inter-Korean relations and to initiate dialogue.
Regarding the statement made by Democratic Party member Park Sun-won that “gathering intelligence on insurrection and foreign exchange crimes is the NIS's mission,” the nominee responded, “The NIS has investigation authority, but I’ve heard that this authority is so weak that it cannot even enter military bases,” adding, “It is necessary to amend regulations through enforcement rules to ensure that the NIS can effectively exercise its investigative authority in the area of national security.”
He added, “Current employees express grievances that it is impossible to perform their duties with this investigative authority,” but stated, “The authority to conduct national security investigations has undergone a transfer period of three years, and there are still areas that have not yet settled, so we are making every effort to ensure it will be established.”
When questioned about the assertion that “North Korea has declared the inter-Korean relationship an adversarial two-state relationship,” he replied, “Traditionally, when the inter-Korean relationship is very difficult, we have a certain mission to break through that,” adding, “If there is a role that we can play in alleviating military tensions between the North and South and initiating dialogue, I believe that is something we can accomplish.”