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The National Intelligence Service is facing mounting criticism from the ruling party as well as Cheong Wa Dae for failing to supply information on the internal situation in North Korea, as well as the cause of the shooting that killed a South Korean tourist at the North Korean resort of Mt. Kumgang.
A lot of the criticism of the NIS appears to be an attempt to channel public criticism away from President Lee Myung-bak for offering to hold talks with North Korea on the same day the shooting took place. The NIS is being blamed for the president¡¯s failure to respond in a timely manner. But nobody is falling for this.
Aside from that, it seems that the ability of the NIS to gather intelligence from North Korea has weakened. It has been 11 days since the shooting death, but the government has yet to conclude whether the incident was an act of provocation by the North Korean regime or a murder committed by a soldier. No wonder the NIS is being criticized for being a waste of taxpayer¡¯s money.
The reason why the NIS has become this way is because previous administrations used the intelligence agency for pro-North Korean political activities. Over the last 10 years, the NIS has abandoned its rightful task and served as the president¡¯s point man in dealings with North Korea. As the North Korea hands at the NIS were temporarily transferred to assist in the president¡¯s pro-North Korean activities, those who were purely involved in intelligence gathering were either weeded out or ostracized. And those NIS officials who had been involved in the previous administration¡¯s pro-North Korean activities have been expelled from the agency with the inauguration of the new government, leading to a vacuum in intelligence on the North.
North Korea is a candidate for rapprochement and at the same time a threat to our national security. There needs to be a separate agency handling inter-Korean exchanges, making the NIS as the final rampart of our nation¡¯s security through effective intelligence gathering. Our country¡¯s very existence depends on the intelligence-gathering ability of the NIS.
But a significant part of the public would feel uneasy about making the NIS more powerful. That¡¯s because of the history the agency has in meddling in political matters. An intelligence organization must be present but invisible. The best way to gain the trust of the public as the final fortress of our nation¡¯s security is for the NIS to become powerful, yet disappear from public view.
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