Text Fwd: Military investigating lawmaker for leaking secrets

Korea Times
Military investigating lawmaker for leaking secrets
Oct. 11, 2010
By Jung Sung-ki

The Defense Security Command (DSC) is investigating an opposition lawmaker for leaking military secrets regarding the sinking of the ship Cheonan in March.

The move is sparking controversy over the legality of such a probe of whether lawmakers have the privilege of exemption from liability for his or her speech in the National Assembly.

In an Oct. 4 National Assembly inspection of the JCS, Rep. Shin Hak-yong of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) disclosed information on radio communications between sailors at the 2nd Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, the home port of the sunken Cheonan.

The communications revealed that the 2nd Fleet Command had already detected suspected moves by North Korean submarines. The North Korean army had also been preparing for long-range artillery fire against the South, the intelligence revealed.

But the command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) didn’t raise the alert level, the lawmaker claimed.

“It’s against the law to investigate a lawmaker who pointed out serious problems with defense readiness,” Rep. Park Ji-won, floor leader of the DP, said. “We’ll not sit idle if the military investigates Shin.”

“The military turned on me even though it made serious faults regarding the Cheonan sinking,” Shin argued.

DSC officials say they have the authority to investigate into military information leakage cases no matter who’s involved.

“Whether Shin will be punished or not is a separate issue. As long as there was a leak of military secrets, we have to look into the problem,” a DSC official said.

Besides Shin, the command has also investigated some JSC officers who had allegedly reported the information to the lawmaker ahead of the parliamentary inspection.

“By making public the information written in cipher, North Korea could be able to learn some of our military’s letter codes. That’s a big issue harming national security.”

The Cheonan warship was sunk near the disputed sea border in the West Sea on March 26. Forty-six sailors lost their lives in the naval disaster.

A Seoul-led multinational team of investigators determined in May that the ship was sunk by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine. Pyongyang denies any involvement in it.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr