Spy chief dismissed warnings of attack
Source: Agencies |
December 3, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
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SOUTH Korea's spies had information indicating North Korea might attack a frontline island in August, but the intelligence chief dismissed it as a routine threat.
Yeonpyeong Island, a tiny enclave of civilians and military bases located near a disputed maritime border, endured a barrage of North Korean shells last week, and lawmakers in Seoul slammed the government yesterday for the intelligence failure. The surprise revelation came the day before in an unusually candid private briefing by spy chief Won Sei-hoon.
In the wake of the attack - in which two South Korean marines and two civilians died - the defense minister resigned. President Lee Myung-bak has been criticized for leading a military whose response to the attack was seen as too slow and too weak: North Korea fired 170 rounds, compared with 80 returned by South Korea.
Won told lawmakers that South Korea had intercepted North Korean military communications in August that indicated Pyongyang was preparing to attack Yeonpyeong and other islands. Won didn't expect that attack to be on civilian areas and considered it a "routine threat," according to the office of lawmaker Choi Jae-sung who attended the closed-door session.
"Our intelligence system didn't work," Jun Byung-hun, the chief policymaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, said yesterday.
The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.
"This shows the national security system is in serious disorder," the conservative Munhwa Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial yesterday.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to play down Won's comments, saying the intelligence was that North Korea ordered troops to prepare to return fire should South Korea conduct artillery drills.
Won told lawmakers that North Korea is likely to strike again. He said North Korea carried out the attack as it needed a "breakthrough" amid "dissatisfaction" over a plan to transfer power from Kim Jong Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, Choi's office said.
Yeonpyeong Island, a tiny enclave of civilians and military bases located near a disputed maritime border, endured a barrage of North Korean shells last week, and lawmakers in Seoul slammed the government yesterday for the intelligence failure. The surprise revelation came the day before in an unusually candid private briefing by spy chief Won Sei-hoon.
In the wake of the attack - in which two South Korean marines and two civilians died - the defense minister resigned. President Lee Myung-bak has been criticized for leading a military whose response to the attack was seen as too slow and too weak: North Korea fired 170 rounds, compared with 80 returned by South Korea.
Won told lawmakers that South Korea had intercepted North Korean military communications in August that indicated Pyongyang was preparing to attack Yeonpyeong and other islands. Won didn't expect that attack to be on civilian areas and considered it a "routine threat," according to the office of lawmaker Choi Jae-sung who attended the closed-door session.
"Our intelligence system didn't work," Jun Byung-hun, the chief policymaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, said yesterday.
The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.
"This shows the national security system is in serious disorder," the conservative Munhwa Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial yesterday.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to play down Won's comments, saying the intelligence was that North Korea ordered troops to prepare to return fire should South Korea conduct artillery drills.
Won told lawmakers that North Korea is likely to strike again. He said North Korea carried out the attack as it needed a "breakthrough" amid "dissatisfaction" over a plan to transfer power from Kim Jong Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, Choi's office said.
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