By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter


The prosecution on Tuesday summoned Chun Yong-taek, former director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), for questioning over the spy agency’s illegal wiretapping conducted during his tenure in the late 1990s.

Investigators questioned him over the allegation that he made a secret deal with Kong Un-yong, former head of the NIS wiretapping team, codenamed ``Mirim,’’ in November 1999 after seizing copies of the eavesdropping tapes Kong had kept in his house.

They asked Chun about why the NIS destroyed the tapes one month after the seizure.

Chun, now lawmaker of the ruling Uri Party, is also suspected of having ordered Mirim to get rid of two tapes containing information against him, saying that he used the tapes for his own interests.

Investigators also questioned him over whether he ordered the creation of the cell phone-bugging device, called ``CASS,’’ and eavesdropping operations using the device.

Earlier this month, the NIS said it developed CASS in December 1999 but stopped using it in September 2000 after the nation adopted code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000 technology.

Oh Chung-so, former senior official of the spy agency during the Kim Young-sam administration, will also be summoned on Wednesday.

He is suspected of having led the reorganization of Mirim in 1994, which was disbanded the previous year.

Prosecutors will also question him over the allegation that the information collected through illegal tapping was reported to Kim Hyun-chul, second son of former President Kim.

Former NIS senior official Park Il-yong and former NIS heads Kim Deok and Kwon Young-hae during the Kim government, will also be questioned this week.

The prosecution is also investigating a suspicion that the agency destroyed wiretapping devices, including CASS, in April 2002 by throwing them into the furnace of a steel manufacturing company.

Prosecutors plan to question NIS officials over the allegations and whether any devices were secretly kept during the destruction process.

But the steel company workers are denying the allegations, claiming that they never put any other material into the furnace as it would contaminate the quality of the steel

The prosecution is also reviewing the slush fund scandal that involves Samsung Group providing 6 billion won to politicians ahead of the presidential election in 1997, following a civic group’s petition to investigate the case.

The group requested the prosecution to investigate the case last month, after the eavesdropped conversation between Samsung vice chairman Lee Hak-soo and Hong Seok-hyun, Korean ambassador to the U.S., was revealed.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking prosecutor reportedly said the NIS tried to wiretap prosecutors’ cell phones in November 2000 when they investigated a loan scandal which involved venture businessman Jin Seung-hyun, politicians and former NIS senior official Kim Yun-sung.

He said that the Supreme Prosecutors Office ordered investigators not to use cell phones for possible eavesdropping, and that a black car suspected of carrying tapping devices made a round of the prosecutors’ office building, the Munhwa Ilbo reported.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr