science

South Korean illegal surveillance incident

South Korean illegal surveillance incident is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand South Korean illegal surveillance incident rather than just read about it. In short: The South Korean illegal surveillance incident (Korean: 민간인 불법사찰 사건, or illegal civilian surveillance incident) was alleged to have occurred in 2010 when the Civil Service Ethics Division (공직윤리지원관실) under the Prime Minister's Office of South Korea inspected a civilian, a political action that is illegal under the South Korean conventions. The incident re-emerged in early 2012 as the election approached.

Key takeaways

South Korean illegal surveillance incident belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect South Korean illegal surveillance incident to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of South Korean illegal surveillance incident from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The South Korean illegal surveillance incident (Korean: 민간인 불법사찰 사건, or illegal civilian surveillance incident) was alleged to have occurred in 2010 when the Civil Service Ethics Division (공직윤리지원관실) under the Prime Minister's Office of South Korea inspected a civilian, a political action that is illegal under the South Korean conventions. The incident re-emerged in early 2012 as the election approached. Under Lee Myung-bak's presidency, the South Korean intelligence services (NIS) orchestrated campaigns to manipulate public opinion. NIS-led "NGOs" have conducted media campaigns against opponents of the government; denounced the "buses of hope" (which emerged to support a trade union movement in 2011), criticized the proposals for free school meals and free medical care and called for the disbandment of the Democratic Labour Party. In 2012, the NIS conducted a slander campaign against the presidential candidate Moon Jae-in in order to divert voters to the conservative candidate Park Geun-hye. In February 2015, the former head of the NIS was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in these manipulations.

Background

Kim Jong-ik The surveillance scandal originally developed as an investigation of a South Korean civilian named Kim Jong-ik (Korean: 김종익), a bank worker who posted in his blog a video clip Jwiko (Korean: 쥐코) that lampooned President Lee Myung-bak as a rat in a fashion from the movie, Sicko. This has generated multiple controversies such as concerns of Internet censorship and political misconducts. In a March 2012 interview of Kim Jong-ik, he said he has been "emotionally scarred" and was forced to resign his position at his company and move to Japan. He had lost his means to support his family and accumulated debt. Kim did not know why he himself was singled out as a target, as many others had posted the same video. He expressed deep concerns towards the government of this happening again.

Investigation In 2012, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea (SPO) has decided to reopen the case based on testimonies of the bureau insider, Jang Jin-su (장진수). A special team of prosecutors was formed to investigate the surveillance incident and a potential cover up. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea raided the Prime Minister's Office for the first time in its history on July 9, 2010. The SPO eventually discovered an alleged concealment of evidences. Former Presidential Secretary for Employment and Labor Relations, Lee Young-ho (이영호), was banned from leaving the country for his involvement in incident. Former Presidential Secretary Lee Young-ho and former Presidential Labor Advisor Choi Jong-seok were arrested on April 3, 2012, for allegedly ordering Jang Jin-su to destroy the information related to the surveillance. On April 4, 2012, Jang Jin-su revealed pictures of 50 million won he claims he received from Rhyu Chung-ryeol, a former Prime Minister's Office official, as a bribe to destroy the data, through the independent South Korean news source, OhMyNews.

Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak administrations As the scandal was revisited during the 2012 Korea elections, debate has expanded over into conducts by both the current and previous regimes. Some have alleged that surveillance was done during the previous regime, as well as the current.

Media reports Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, a notable media outlet, claimed to expose the incident in its journalist-oriented investigative program, PD Notebook, on June 29, 2010. The KBS-affiliated journalists who are on strike claimed to have obtained 2,619 surveillance-related cases of reports from the Lee Myung-bak government. However, it was later reported that over 80% of the alleged illegal surveillance records were actually created during the previous Roh Moo-hyun regime. Of the 2,619 documents, only 120 were considered actual reports, and 2 reports were of civilians. Two former executives of National Intelligence Service, Koh Yeong-gu and Kim Man-bok denied the claims. The KBS union immediately posted a tweet calling the explanation a lie, but soon changed stance and apologized for the inaccurate information. The KBS journalists who are on strike later refuted the claim. They claimed that the total of cases including the duplicated entities are 2,837; total of cases during the Roh administration are 2,356 and written by police forces who follow normal procedures in which only 10 cases are involved with civilians.

Public opinion The main opposition Democratic United Party demanded a full reinvestigation of the incident. The Korea Times and The New York Times compared the scandal to the American Watergate scandal, referring to it as the "Watergate of Korea". The conservative political activist and a current Saenuri Party political reformer, Lee Sang-don, made a remark during a radio interview on April 5, 2012:

The illegal surveillance case is exactly the same as the Watergate scandal. [U.S. President Richard] Nixon didn't instruct the illegal spying but stepped down from presidency for covering up the case.

See also Lee Myung-bak Lee Myung-bak government Roh Moo-hyun Political scandals in South Korea

References

External links (in Korean) What is the Prime Minister's Office's 'Illegal Surveillance Incident'?, by Kyunghyang Cover-up allegations Agency spied on South Korean blogger critical of president SOUTH KOREA: Impartial investigation into unlawful surveillance by presidential office unlikely without independent prosecution SOUTH KOREA: Korean style of 'Watergate Scandal'? SOUTH KOREA: Strong support to those who are struggling for freedom of the media Plot thickens in illegal surveillance case Snooping dogs Lee by The Economist

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with South Korean illegal surveillance incident

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what South Korean illegal surveillance incident claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to South Korean illegal surveillance incident before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about South Korean illegal surveillance incident ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of South Korean illegal surveillance incident

In research: South Korean illegal surveillance incident appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses South Korean illegal surveillance incident in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: South Korean illegal surveillance incident is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 in South Korea, 2012 in South Korea, 2012 scandals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for South Korean illegal surveillance incident outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study South Korean illegal surveillance incident in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what South Korean illegal surveillance incident means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain South Korean illegal surveillance incident out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is South Korean illegal surveillance incident in simple terms?

Why does South Korean illegal surveillance incident matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study South Korean illegal surveillance incident?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on South Korean illegal surveillance incident.