People Power Party Demands Ouster of Jeong Dong-young and Lee Jong-seok Over Korea-US Intelligence-Sharing Dispute
On the 11th, the People Power Party demanded the immediate dismissal of Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young and National Intelligence Service Director Lee Jong-seok, citing the Korea-US intelligence-sharing dispute, while the Democratic Party of Korea countered that it was "an act of using security as a tool for political strife."
The dispute dates back to March 6. At a full meeting of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee that day, Minister Jeong publicly identified Kusong, North Pyongan Province, as an area where North Korea operates a uranium enrichment facility (a plant producing material for nuclear weapons). The United States, reportedly viewing this as a leak of classified intelligence, has since reduced some intelligence sharing with Seoul.
The People Power Party placed the blame for the dispute within the government itself. Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk said on Facebook on the 11th that "the breakdown of the Korea-US alliance would lead to the collapse of South Korea's security," arguing that Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young and NIS Director Lee Jong-seok "must be dismissed immediately." Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said at a press briefing at the National Assembly, "We must first root out pro-North Korea figures within the government who are breeding distrust among our allies." Citing a senior US administration official's remark on the 9th (local time) that "we expect Korea to adhere to the standards of an alliance the two countries have maintained for decades, particularly regarding intelligence and counterintelligence matters," the floor leader called it "an ominous, warning-like statement."
Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Ki-heon, a member of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, said, "Bilateral intelligence cooperation was partially restricted in March but was quickly restored and is now proceeding normally." He added, "We also possess considerable intelligence, including human intelligence (HUMINT), so US intelligence authorities cannot afford to forgo data from their Korean counterparts."
