Lawmakers enter the office of the National Intelligence Service in Seoul, in this Oct. 26, 2022, file photo. According to civic groups and other sources on Tuesday, NIS officials and police have been investigating allegations that some liberal activists, including party officials, helped promote anti-government activities after taking orders from North Korea's ruling Workers' Party. Newsis

Party officials, activists suspected of carrying out orders from Pyongyang

By Jung Min-ho

When South Korea's largest labor umbrella group called for an end to the alliance with the U.S. and conscription during weekend rallies before Aug. 15 National Liberation Day last year, some observers questioned what those demands have to do with improving workers' rights.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) and police now suspect that the messages chanted in the Seoul streets might have come directly from Pyongyang and that it was orchestrated by regime sympathizers engaged in espionage activities here at its behest.

According to civic groups and other sources on Tuesday, NIS officials and police have been investigating allegations that some liberal activists, including party officials, helped promote anti-government activities after taking orders from North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.

Over the past several weeks, the investigators have raided the homes and offices of the key suspects in Jeju, Jinju, Jeonju and Changwon.

It all began in July 2017 when a former high-ranking official of the Progressive Party allegedly met a North Korean agent in Siem Reap of Cambodia, where the South Korean was told to create a secret organization on Jeju Island and was informed how to communicate with North Korean officials.

It is alleged that the official later conspired with two other activists to organize a group, through which they helped stage anti-U.S. protests and supported certain election candidates. They are suspected of communicating with North Korean officials for more than five years. Taking control of "the Jeju 4.3 unification committee" under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the anti-U.S. protest organizer, suspending military exercises between Seoul and Washington and protesting the procurement of high tech weapons are among the orders they allegedly received from the North.

The investigators suspect that they used steganography, a means of concealing messages or information within other ordinary-looking text or data, to report their activities to the officials in North Korea.

The suspects and the organizations suspected of having connections with them have denied the accusations.

Investigators raid the home of the official of the Progressive Party's office on Jeju Island, Dec. 19, 2022. Newsis

"This is nothing but an attempt to undermine the KCTU, which opposes the anti-labor policy direction of President Yoon Suk Yeol," the organization's Jeju office said in a statement. "The KCTU's Jeju headquarters is not an organization that makes moves at someone's behest, nor can it be operated that way. It is run voluntarily and democratically by Jeju workers."

A group consisting of officials of liberal parties and civic groups in Jeju accused the government of trying to suppress liberal politicians with falsified events.

"The investigation is still underway and no one has been indicted. Yet solely based on what's written on search warrants, it has been exaggerated as a spy ring case," the group said in a statement. "We suspect that the Yoon administration has been leaking falsified information to conservative media outlets amid criticism following the recent incursion of North Korean drones."

The latest investigation targeting a North Korean spy ring was conducted in 2021, when four people were indicted on espionage charges. They are suspected of carrying out orders from the North, including organizing a rally against the government plan to procure 20 additional F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter jets.

The NIS and police reportedly started keeping track of the case five years ago when former President Moon Jae-in was in office. It is unclear why the official probe had been postponed until recently.

Key ruling party lawmakers urged the investigators to step up efforts to establish the full facts, saying what has been revealed so far is "shocking."

"It gives me goosebumps that those spies were behind anti-conservative, anti-government and anti-U.S. protests," Rep. Yang Kun-hee, spokeswoman for the party, said in a statement. "Suspicions have been raised that they formed a nationwide network … We should use this opportunity to fight the forces that take orders from North Korea to divide the society and stoke conflict."

They also blamed the previous administration for enacting a law to strip the NIS of the right to investigate North Korean spy cases, saying it needs to be reviewed before the process of transferring its investigative powers to police is completed by the end of this year.