Spy chief under mounting pressure to quit over botched operation

By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's spy agency has come under intensifying pressure to change over an allegation that its agents were involved in a botched operation to steal information from a visiting delegation of Indonesian envoys.

   Police have been investigating the allegation that three to four agents of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) unsuccessfully broke into a Seoul hotel room of the Indonesian delegation last Wednesday, in an attempt to steal classified arms trade information from their laptop computer. The agency neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.

   Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, a member of the Grand National Party (GNP) Supreme Council, harshly criticized the NIS, asking its chief to resign.

   "The NIS, which has been criticized for failing to cope with North Korea's attack on the navy ship Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island, is now drawing jeers internationally due to the hotel intrusion incident," Hong said.

Won Sei-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service. (Yonhap file photo)

He called for President Lee Myung-bak to sack Won Sei-hoon as director of the NIS. "The NIS must be reformed with the dismissal of the NIS chief as the starting point," Hong said.

   Rep. Suh Byung-soo, also a council member, agreed, saying Won should take responsibility "for damaging the country's national interest and dishonoring it."

   Rep. Chung Doo-un focused on the "normalization" of the intelligence agency.

   "The NIS uses enormous budget and manpower as a top organization in charge of national security, but its system is now out of order," the supreme council member said. "Now is the time to normalize the agency."

   But a ranking official at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said the NIS chief won't be replaced in connection with the suspicion surrounding the hotel intrusion incident.

   Criticism from the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) was even more bitter.

   Sohn Hak-kyu, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), urged Lee to normalize the spy agency, claiming that overheated competition among Lee's aides, including Won, to win the president's favor was the cause of the incident. Won worked as deputy mayor of Seoul when Lee was mayor.

   "I no longer want to limit my talk to merely demanding Won's resignation," Sohn said in a party leadership meeting."

   "I demand President Lee put all state organizations back to where they were and lay the grounds for democracy." he said.