“I decided the NIS was more important than whatever impact (my action) would cause, and so I deleted information that created misunderstandings about our counter-terrorism and covert operations on North Korea”
“It was a mistake on my part. But there is nothing to be worried about over any of my actions.”
“I hope (the leadership) will manage the NIS so that all the employees can carry out their operations without hesitation.”
- Lim, NIS agent
An official at Yongin Dongbu Police Station in Yongin, South Korea, on July 19, 2015, holds up a page of the will left by a National Intellgence Service employee who was found dead the previous day. (Yonhap)
SEOUL/YONGIN, Jul. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – The spy agency employee recently found dead denied in his apparent suicide note that the intelligence body used its controversial hacking program on civilians, police said Sunday.
Police earlier disclosed part of the will left behind by the employee of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), surnamed Lim, who was found dead in a car on a mountain road in Yongin, some 50 kilometers south of Seoul, on Saturday.
The apparent suicide and the note are expected to further stoke the controversy surrounding where and how the NIS used the hacking program it bought from an Italian company in 2012.
The NIS has so far said the program, which uses Remote Control System technology, allows hackers to manipulate and track smartphones and computers by installing spyware.
It said the system can hack 20 mobile phones simultaneously, making it ideal for eavesdropping.
The NIS emphasized that it used the program for the purpose of strengthening cyber warfare capabilities against Pyongyang and only against people living outside the country that have ties with the reclusive, communist country.
Such explanations, however, have been met with skepticism by many in the country, and in particular, the main opposition party, which believes the NIS has also spied on South Korean civilians.
(Yonhap)
