Quick fix cannot fill the security vacuum

The authority over counterespionage shifts from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to the police on Jan. 1, according to a law amendment passed in 2020 under the previous Moon Jae-in administration. But many remain doubtful of the enlarged role of police. Discretion is essential for anti-spy activities. Intelligence also relies largely on networking with foreign authorities and intelligence.

Whether the police have built up such capacity over the last four years is questionable. It cannot be easy for police officers, who routinely rotate duties, to devote themselves to spy cases that require many years of surveillance and investigation. In last year’s self-evaluation, policy officers worried about their lack of ability to deal with sensitive cases involving counterintelligence activities. Under such circumstances, we can imagine how poor police capacity in overseas intelligence will be if their judgment on their domestic activity is so low.

The police plan to increase the number of counterespionage personnel to 700 next year from 462 as of June. But spies cannot be tracked merely through head counts. To chase spy rings that are becoming more and more sophisticated, professionals are needed. Most of the figures suspected of spy activities in Changwon, South Gyeongsnag, Jeju, and Cheongju were released lately despite years of evidence buildup by the police. To make matters worse, North Korea will most likely ratchet up the level of its psychological warfare against South Korea only to raise tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

The conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration has drawn up a decree on security-related crimes to allow NIS officials to get involved in investigating spies for North Korea. Specifically, the spy agency can collect evidence, track figures who pose a potential threat to national security and support the administrative and judiciary procedures to bring them to justice.

The government also added a mandate to enable the NIS to get involved in intelligence and security cases related to the crimes of felony — such as leaks of military secrets, illegal use of codes, and attempts to wage a rebellion or civil war in clear violation of the National Security Act — so that NIS officers can share their expertise after the spy agency loses its statutory authority over investigation. But the move is just a makeshift measure to protect our national security.

Given the limitations and public anxiety, it would be even better to keep the authority within the NIS. Even the main opposition party admits that there must not be partisanship on security issues, even though it pushed for the nonsensical revision when it was the ruling party. There is little time left. The National Assembly must fix the loopholes in the revision when new lawmakers are elected in April next year.