Spy agency admits tapping cell phones

The National Intelligence Service admitted it had previously intercepted cell phone conversations yesterday, a day after the JoongAng Ilbo’s report on eavesdropping technology for cell phone communications. But the Ministry of Information and Communication was sticking to its position that monitoring cell phones is practically impossible. The intelligence agency, mired in a controversy over wiretapping practices in the 1990s, conceded in a press conference yesterday that it managed to listen in on private cell phone discussions. However, an official with the communication ministry wondered aloud how the agency could do that. “I have no idea how the National Intelligence Service pulled it off,” said Yang Hwang-jeong, director of the telecommunications service development division at the ministry. “Eavesdropping on cell phones is theoretically possible, but realistically impossible.” He added that if the intelligence agency did intercept cell phone conversations, it must have done so only on a limited basis. “Even if the agents did intercept cell phone signals, they would have had trouble with the constant mobility of the cell phones and frequently lost signals,” Mr. Yang said. Meanwhile, mobile communications industry officials were being more circumspect. “The whole industry has been telling people eavesdropping on cell phones couldn’t be done,” said an industry member. “And after all that news, what can we say?” Another industry official said the business let out a collective sigh of relief yesterday when the National Intelligence Service did not discuss in the press conference the involvement of mobile communications companies in their monitoring activities. by Lee Hee-sung