A record of silent devotion and pain
The Story of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) by Former Director Lee Byung-ho

The true story of the NIS's weakening, as revealed by the director of the National Intelligence Service under the Park Geun-hye administration.

During the five years of the Moon Jae-in administration, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was a hunting ground for "eradicating deep-rooted evils." Why were they so intent on demonizing and neutralizing the NIS?

Information work is a profession where people keep their mouths shut and carry the information they learn on the job to their grave.
Breaking the ethics of silence, he asked endless questions in prison.
“Who benefits most from the weakening of the National Intelligence Service?”

The National Intelligence Service was the ultimate hunting ground for eradicating corruption.
More than 350 current and former employees were investigated by prosecutors, and 46 employees, including three heads of the National Intelligence Service, were sent to prison.
The National Intelligence Service suffered a wound beyond imagination from the eradication of corruption.
The spirit of the intelligence agency was injured.

Through this book, I pointed out the difficult reality facing the National Intelligence Service and suggested that President Yoon Seok-yeol exercise extraordinary leadership to strengthen the agency's intelligence capabilities.
I sincerely hope that this book will contribute, even if only slightly, to the National Intelligence Service's advancement into a better intelligence agency.
---From the "Preface"

When I took office as director of the National Intelligence Service in March 2015, a new and urgent task was emerging in the silent war between North and South Korea.
It was a slush fund that was used to strengthen North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities, which was used to suffocate Kim Jong-un.

On January 6, 2016, the third year of President Park Geun-hye's term, North Korea conducted a nuclear test.
It was the fourth time since 2009.
UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea have been fully implemented.
Information is key to the policy of pressuring North Korea through tightening the financial system.
North Korea has used every means of evasion to avoid international scrutiny.
The National Intelligence Service's efforts to find this out were fierce.
A fierce game of hide-and-seek unfolded between those trying to hide and those trying to find.

Then, the world of the Moon Jae-in administration became something we had never experienced before.
The National Intelligence Service's efforts to gather information on North Korea, which had been pursuing North Korea, were blocked by a large rock wall.
---「I.
From “The Mission and History of the National Intelligence Service”

Intelligence agencies in every country in the world perform special functions.
This special function is called covert action in the United States and active measures in Russia.
It refers to the work of actively and secretly targeting information targets to achieve national policy goals.

Most of the secret contacts between North and South Korea throughout our history were the work of the National Intelligence Service.
All secret negotiations with North Korea that have taken place so far, including the July 4th North-South Joint Statement by former KCIA Director Lee Hu-rak, the Kim Dae-jung administration's remittance of $450 million to North Korea, and the first North-South summit, were carried out by intelligence agencies.
All of this falls under the category of covert operations.

The Moon Jae-in administration has comprehensively revised the National Intelligence Service Act.
All special activities against North Korea carried out by the National Intelligence Service are activities without legal basis.
Furthermore, behind-the-scenes contact with North Korea is a task that has no legal basis and should not be done.
---「II.
From “Understanding National Intelligence”

The Moon Jae-in administration suddenly sent former President Park Geun-hye and three National Intelligence Service directors to prison on charges of embezzlement of national funds, under the pretext of eradicating deep-rooted evils.
It ruled that the president's command of the National Intelligence Service budget was illegal.
I testified in court to the following effect:

“The President’s authority to command the National Intelligence Service is guaranteed by the Constitution and the law.
The president's first responsibility is national security.
The President must be able to mobilize all the nation's resources to ensure national security.
Former President Park Geun-hye neither embezzled money nor used National Intelligence Service support funds for personal gain.
“And yet, the president misused the National Intelligence Service budget, causing a loss to the national treasury. This is an absurd criminal charge that could not be committed in any civilized country.”

I believe that the ruling to liquidate corruption will be recorded in history as the biggest blemish on the Kim Myung-soo judicial system.
A constitutional petition has been filed regarding this Supreme Court ruling.
---「II.
From “Understanding National Intelligence”

South Korea must not neglect the suffering of the North Korean people, both from the perspective of human rights, a universal value of humanity, and from the historical imperative of unification of the Korean Peninsula.
We must quietly work to create conditions for peaceful unification.
That job is obviously the responsibility of the National Intelligence Service.
The National Intelligence Service's 'Creating Peaceful Unification' projects and programs are diverse.
The project's theme is to ensure that all North Koreans share the belief that "the future of the Korean people lies in South Korea."
There are also efforts to awaken the consciousness of North Korean citizens by exploiting the regime's vulnerabilities, such as human rights issues.
There are also programs designed to undermine the cohesion of North Korean elites by spreading the message that if they engage in friendly activities with us, they will have nothing to fear when unification occurs.

The National Intelligence Service's various projects toward North Korea have received considerable response within North Korea.
The increase in defectors, especially elite defectors, attests to this.
During my tenure as the Director of the National Intelligence Service, there was a continuous stream of defectors, including the group defection of 13 employees from Yukyung Restaurant.
There have been defections by a double-digit number of high-ranking North Korean elites, including Ambassador Thae Yong-ho.
A mood of admiration for South Korea was gradually spreading among North Korean residents.

But then the Moon Jae-in government suddenly appeared.
The effort to instill hope in North Korean citizens has been dealt a crushing blow.
The Moon Jae-in administration has neglected North Korean defectors who risked their lives to escape.
Even elite defectors were kicked out.
A North Korean fisherman was forcibly repatriated through Panmunjom while blindfolded.
Even in the eyes of North Korean citizens, the Moon Jae-in administration must have been seen as a regime that only deals with and courts the brutal dictator Kim Jong-un.
In this way, North Korean people lost hope in South Korea.
---「V.
From “The Crisis on the Korean Peninsula and the Nature of the North Korean Regime”

National intelligence work is largely divided into two areas.
The fields are Internal Security & Intelligence and Foreign Intelligence.
Of these two major national intelligence functions, the Moon Jae-in administration has effectively dismantled the domestic security intelligence sector.
The Moon Jae-in administration pushed to abolish the National Intelligence Service's counterintelligence investigation authority and transfer it to the police.
And the domestic intelligence division of the National Intelligence Service was effectively abolished.
The National Intelligence Service's function of protecting the country has been completely weakened.
This is a development that North Korea is very pleased with.


It is well known that North Korea has consistently demanded the abolition of the National Security Law and the disbandment of the National Intelligence Service for the past 70 years.
This is because the National Security Act and the National Intelligence Service are the biggest obstacles to what they want to do, namely, the operation of the South Korean communist project.
The Moon Jae-in administration has effectively dismantled the obstacles that North Korea's intelligence agencies had hoped for, thereby offering them to North Korea.
---「VI.
From “The Ordeal of the National Intelligence Service”

Currently, routine work at the National Intelligence Service that does not involve risk is going well.
However, the impetus to pursue more breakthrough information work has been lost.
With this kind of attitude, will the National Intelligence Service be able to properly fulfill its role as an intelligence agency that will overcome the national security crisis we face in the future?

That is why the National Intelligence Service must quickly become a proper intelligence agency.
It is absolutely necessary for national security.
There is only one way.
It is about returning to the basics of information management, applying it to the operation of the National Intelligence Service, and waiting for the time to accumulate and establish it.

---「VII.
From “Suggestions for the Future”