Effective Jan. 1, 2024, South Korea’s police will handle counter-espionage investigations following the transfer of the National Intelligence Service’s authority. As an armistice nation, S. Korea has managed issues related to North Korean espionage and similar concerns through its counter-espionage authority.
However, there are concerns that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has not fully transferred its expertise in counter-espionage to the police. The challenge lies in transferring the NIS’s accumulated knowledge to the police, and in ensuring the police can maintain the capability.
Counter-espionage investigations require skills such as analyzing encrypted information and accessing international intelligence networks. Until last year, spies who were apprehended demonstrated behaviors such as secret communication and clandestine overseas meetings, utilizing sophisticated encryption programs like ‘steganography’.
Decryption without an international intelligence network is ineffective. NIS agents have carefully managed human intelligence (HUMINT) over the years, using it to verify whether individuals met by espionage suspects in the field are indeed North Korean operatives and ascertain their meeting’s purpose before proceeding to gather evidence. This expertise, developed by the NIS over decades, is considered difficult for the police to fully absorb in a short period, according to legal circles.
It is uncertain whether the police can maintain security even with the NIS’s expertise. Investigating counter-espionage requires sensitive security procedures that can take between 1 to 6 years of internal investigation. Key evidence often involves North Korea and overseas elements. Unlike NIS agents, whose identities can change depending on the case, the identities of police officers, including those in the national security investigation team and overseas consulate staff, are public.
A legal expert noted, “Once NIS agents are assigned to counter-espionage, they usually spend their entire career in that field,” contrasting with the typical one-year rotation cycle in police staffing, raising concerns about the effectiveness of maintaining security in these sensitive operations.
