[Editorial] Anti-state spy activities in full swing

Former and current executives at the combative Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) are being probed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) on espionage speculation. When it was raided by authorities, the KCTU protested to the “political show” and vowed a general strike against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. The liberal front — the majority opposition Democratic Party (DP) and the Justice Party — criticized the “outdated revival” of the security regime for anti-union and anti-North Korea probes.

But a court granted the seize and raid upon finding detailed evidence and grounds obtained by the top spy agency over a lengthy period. KCTU officials are suspected of making contact with North Korean spy agents in Cambodia and Vietnam from 2017 to 2019 to carry out anti-America and pro-North Korean activities after receiving an order from North Korea. The suspects maintained influential posts in the umbrella union, including the organization’s director general and senior members of the healthcare workers’ union and metal workers’ union.

Details on their activities cannot be known until further investigation and trial, but many of the political activities led by the KCTU may have involved North Korea. The rallies held up banners and protests calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Korea and the Thaad missile defense system, which are unrelated to workers’ rights. Their rallies last year even called for scrapping the Korea-U.S. alliance.

Although suspicions were raised for years, investigation did not take place. Cases related to leftist figures in Jeju and Changwon were stalled. The Moon Jae-in administration, eager to improve inter-Korean relations, rolled back the investigation capabilities of spy agencies and the police on security issues. It seated pro-government figures in key positions and weakened intelligence and the investigation ability of the NIS, military, prosecution and police.

As a result, the number of espionage cases fell from 26 between 2011 and 2016 to three between 2017 and 2020. Arrests were made of figures suspected of interfering with the presidential and parliamentary elections at North Korean order in 2021, but investigations were scaled back.

In 2020, the DP stripped the NIS of its investigation authority on domestic spy activities and passed a revision to the NIS Act to hand investigation authority to the police in 2024. Given the police is reshuffled every year, it would be less fit to command anti-spy operations that require lengthy investigations.

As North Korea’s threat has increased, spy activities must not be tolerated. The time has come for the National Assembly to hold a bipartisan discussion on strengthening the NIS’s investigations into spying from North Korea.