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Still dismissive of the spy agency? Think again.

Published: 02 Dec. 2024, 19:42

Chang Se-jeong
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

As Donald Trump will begin his second term as the U.S. president in January, speculations grow that the sounds of gunfire in the Ukraine war will stop soon. With the possibility of a ceasefire on the horizon, Ukraine and Russia are scrambling for every last bit of territory. In October, North Korea’s dispatch of 12,000 troops to the battlefield turned the war into an international conflict.

The battles are getting fiercer after the deployment of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), ballistic missiles and high-tech drones on top of conventional weapons like rifles and artilleries. On the other side, a clandestine information war is underway after Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a renewed treaty on bilateral military alliance, which mandates military intervention in case of emergency.

The intelligence came to the surface on Oct. 18. “It has been discovered that North Korea recently decided to deploy 12,000 soldiers in four brigades to the war in Ukraine,” the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said. “The movement of the troops [to Russia] has already begun.”

That afternoon, President Yoon Suk Yeol held an emergency security meeting to review the troop deployment’s comprehensive impact on our security and discuss responses. It was a nimble response.

At that time, the White House remained vague, only saying it was still “checking” the information. Skepticism grew that the NIS might have made a mistake. But the NIS’s assessment based on AI facial recognition technology was quick and decisive. Five days after the spy agency’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made a belated confirmation that the United States were seeing evidence of North Korean troops being deployed to Russia. It was a moment of validation for the NIS’s intelligence judgement.

Because the war in Ukraine is not a distant matter, the NIS has also been cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence authorities. In mid-October, the NIS’s 3rd Deputy Director Yoon Oh-joon visited the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence. A government delegation led by the spy agency’s 1st Deputy Director Hong Jang-won traveled to Kyiv in early November to meet with key Ukrainian officials. The NIS was well-received for its in-depth briefing on the North Korean military deployment to NATO member states.

During the authoritarian government in the past, the NIS was discredited for its expansive involvement in domestic politics. Its abilities were noticeably curtailed by successive leftist governments, which deprived the NIS of its investigative power over national security cases. But now, the agency has a chance to prove its reason for existence by building confidence in global cases rather than in domestic politics.

Rep. Kim Byung-joo of the Democratic Party continues to stir controversy by politicizing national security, which doesn’t make sense given his outstanding military career as a four-star general who had served as the deputy commander of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.

When the government tried to send a team of military observers to Ukraine, the lawmaker attacked the plan by saying, “If even one person is sent without the consent of the National Assembly, I will take legal action, including the impeachment of the defense minister.”

But it’s a natural step to send an observation team to Ukraine to analyze the battlefield to learn lessons from the war. If the majority opposition threatens the government to block the dispatch of the observation team, the NIS can step in as it has no restrictions on sending its personnel. The NIS can handle many special missions such as psychological warfare against the North Korean troops, intelligence gathering and repatriation of North Korean POWs to South Korea. For the NIS, which is restricted by domestic politics, the outside world is an open stage to showcase its expertise.

At the main entrance of the NIS building in southern Seoul, there is a granite wall, titled as “Nameless Stars,” with 19 silver stars inscribed on it. The stars symbolize those who lost their lives during covert activities for the country.

In September, two agents died in a landslide in Nepal while pioneering a possible defection route for North Koreans. Their names also will be engraved on the wall. We applaud the men and women who continue to work on difficult tasks silently in the world’s most dangerous places for the sake of our security.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.