unlawful investigation of a civilian allegedly suspected to have a financial connec-
tion with the former president Roh Moo-hyun, delays in the investigation allowed
those officials to dispose of important evidence such as computer records. As far as
the intelligence service’s abuse of power is concerned, two recent cases can be
mentioned. First, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) filed a defamation suit
against a famous civic activist and now Seoul mayor, Park Won-soon, for his
accusations of NIS’s unlawful inspection of civilians. On December 12 , 2011 , the
Civil Proceedings Panel 13 of Seoul Appellate Court rejected the NIS’s appeal
challenging the inferior court’s denial of the case. Second, it was revealed that
agents of the Defense Security Command (DSC) had unlawfully been inspecting a
professor for a couple of years.^60
Three interconnected reasons may explain the continuation of this unpleasant
practice. First, the tendency toward “conviction politics,” where presidents
imposed their personal beliefs or ideologies in deciding and implementing state
policies, made inroads into the development and functioning of the organized
public sphere, the National Assembly and political parties, as well as public
administration.
61
President Lee Myong-bak, who stepped down on February 24 ,
2012 , after his five-year term, has been criticized as having a political style that tends
to ignore the National Assembly and the public sphere in the process of setting and
managing the national agenda.
Second, official public administration is controlled or influenced by those within
the president’s inner circle. “The circle of real power,” trusted by presidents, tends
to play an important role in the decision-making process and the appointment
of high-ranking officials and directors of government-involved corporations.
Ministers; high governmental officials, including the head of the information
agency; and even high-ranking prosecutors jockey for connections to “the circle
of real power.” As soon as President Lee Myong-bak came to power, a number of
core members of President Lee’s inner circle were named in political gossip.
For example, Lee Sang-deuk, the president’s elder brother and six-term lawmaker,
was finally indicted for political bribes in 2012 , and Park Hee-tae, a member of
the “Six Elders” who were the top political advisers to presidential candidate Lee at
the presidential election, resigned as the Speaker of the National Assembly because
of his involvement in the distribution of envelopes containing KRW 3 million
during the ruling GNP’s leadership election campaign in 2008. Choi Si-joong,
another member of the Six Elders, also resigned in disgrace as chairperson of the
Korea Communications Commission because of his core aide’s corruption in early
(^60) SeeDong-A IlboEditorial, “Must root out the notorious practice of unlawful inspection of
civilians by the Defense Security Command” (in Korean), November 1 , 2011 , available at
http://news.donga.com/ 3 /all/ 20111101 / 41541937 / 1.
(^61) See Sug-Min Youn, “The crisis of communication and the media in Korea” (in Korean),
Symposium of the Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies (Proceed-
ings), Vol. 2011 ,No 5 , pp. 203 – 7.