Spy chief nominee grilled over his perceptions of North Korea
Lee Jong-seok, the nominee to be the director of the National Intelligence Service, faced scrutiny over his past acquaintance with a former deputy governor convicted over illegal cash transfers to North Korea at his confirmation hearing Thursday.
At the hearing, Lee was asked about his past ties to former Gyeonggi Province Deputy Gov. Lee Hwa-young, who served when President Lee Jae Myung was governor of the province, and was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison for a 2019-20 scheme to transfer funds to the North.
The scheme took place during the president's tenure as governor, a role in which he has denied any wrongdoing. Prosecutors allege that the president, when he was governor, used undergarment maker Ssangbangwool to send $8 million to North Korea.
The NIS director nominee and the former deputy governor had worked together at the inter-Korean peace committee at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office from 2018. The nominee said he knew the former deputy governor strictly in a professional capacity and that he had no knowledge of the scheme at all.
When asked about his past public remarks opposing the introduction of THAAD, the US anti-ballistic missile defense system, and GSOMIA, the intelligence-sharing framework with Japan, the nominee said he believes that those were "things that are already agreed upon and should be complied with."
Lee said that the foundation of South Korea's security is its alliance with the US. "That is the stance of the Lee Jae Myung administration, and I believe the same," he said.
In a written response submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday, a day ahead of his hearing, Lee denied the accusations that he was lenient toward North Korea. "I absolutely cannot agree with the claims that I am pro-North Korea only because I have studied North Korea and the Korean Peninsula in depth," he said.
Lee served as minister of inter-Korean affairs under the late former liberal President Roh Moo-hyun in 2006.
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