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Intelligence chiefs behind bars
16/11/2005 15:21 - (SA)
Seoul - Two former chiefs of South Korea's state intelligence agency were in jail on Wednesday, awaiting trial on charges that they oversaw the agency's illegal wiretapping of influential figures' phone calls.
Lim Dong-won, 71, and Shin Gunn, 64, successively headed the national intelligence service between December 1999 and April 2003 under former South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung.
The two were arrested late on Tuesday. Prosecutors say the two men are responsible for the spy agency's extensive wiretapping of phone conversations.
It is suspected that the agency wiretapped mobile phone calls of about 1&nbps;800 of the country's political, corporate and media elite - including former South Korean president, Kim Yong-sam, Kim Dae-jung's predecessor - when the two held office.
Both have denied the charges.
"I'm sorry for causing concern to people with the wiretapping incident," said Lim. "I feel responsible as a leader (of the agency) that I failed to uncover wiretapping and take proper measures against it."
Arrests have tainted Kim's image
Shin said he had not ordered wiretaps nor received information from them.
Prosecutors said former South Korean president Kim was not involved in the scandal, and that the two ex-chiefs had ignored Kim's instruction to end illegal wiretapping.
The two arrests have tainted the image of Kim, a Nobel peace prize laureate who has long championed human rights and democracy.
The scandal began in July after revelations of a supposed 1997 conversation between Hong Seok-hyun, then publisher of the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo, and Lee Hak-soo, a top executive with Samsung Group, the country's largest industrial conglomerate.
In the conversation, the two apparently discussed providing illicit campaign funds to candidates in the 1997 presidential race - which was won by Kim Dae-jung.
Hong, brother-in-law of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, resigned as South Korea's ambassador to the United States in September over the scandal. Hong appeared before prosecutors for questioning on Wednesday.
Samsung and the spy agency have apologised to the nation.
The scandal, dubbed the "X-files" by South Korean media, has not only revealed problems with the agency, but also illicit collusion between top conglomerates and politicians - one of the inveterate ills of South Korean politics.
Family-controlled conglomerates, or "chaebol", used to illegally give large sums of money described as "insurance" to both ruling and opposition candidates.
- AP
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