South Korean spy in apparent suicide leaves note hinting at hacking scandal

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South Korean spy in apparent suicide leaves note hinting at hacking scandal

The intelligence officer was found dead in his car just south of Seoul

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 18 July, 2015, 11:46pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 19 July, 2015, 12:01am

Associated Press in Seoul

The note left by the intelligence agent seemed to comment on the recent revelation that South Korea's spy agency had acquired hacking programs. Photo: Reuters

A South Korean government spy was found dead on Saturday in an apparent suicide alongside a note that seemed to comment on the recent revelation that the spy agency had acquired hacking programs capable of intercepting communications on mobile phones and computers, police said.

A police official in Yongin city, just south of Seoul, said the 46-year-old National Intelligence Service agent was found dead in his car, but would not reveal the agent’s name or details about the note, saying his family requested that the information not be made public.

The NIS said on Tuesday that it had purchased the hacking programs in 2012 from an Italian company, Hacking Team, but that it used them only to monitor agents from rival North Korea and for research purposes. The story emerged earlier this month when a searchable library of a massive email trove stolen from Hacking Team, released by WikiLeaks, showed that South Korean entities were among those dealing with the firm.

South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Lee Byoung Ho has acknowledged exploring the purchase of technologies to intercept communication on the popular Kakao Talk smartphone chatting service but maintains that it only intended to strengthen its monitoring of rival North Korean agents - not South Koreans. Photo: AP

The revelation is sensitive because the NIS has a history of illegally tapping South Koreans’ private conversations.

Phone calls to the NIS office rang unanswered on Saturday.

Two NIS directors who successively headed the spy service from 1999 to 2003 were convicted and received suspended prison terms for overseeing the monitoring of mobile phone conversations of about 1,800 of South Korea’s political, corporate and media elite.

On Thursday, South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered a new trial for another former spy chief convicted of directing an online campaign to smear a main opposition candidate in the 2012 presidential election, won by current President Park Geun-hye.