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After he stepped into office in November of last year, National Intelligence Service Director Kim Man-bok reportedly sent flowers and donations to various alumni events or clubs in his hometown of Gijang-kun, Busan, while inviting his friends to Seoul for tours and sending them back with arms full of gifts. People from his hometown were reported as saying they ¡°drank fine wine at the NIS cafeteria and shot guns.¡± The NIS director even posted his cell phone number on the website of the middle school he attended. Kim is probably the only intelligence chief in any country who has behaved this way.
Kim was hired in 1974 by the then Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), the predecessor of the NIS and worked as an intelligence officer for the past 33 years. Such a person unveiled his mobile phone number on an Internet site, which could allow others to pinpoint his whereabouts. His behavior is so bizarre for a seasoned intelligence official that it deserves to be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
During an interview with news media on Sep. 1 and at a news conference, Kim appeared with an intelligence agent at his side exposing his identity. That operative is one of the few people, if not the only one, in Korea who can speak the Afghan dialect called Pashto. He may be given an important assignment in the future. And the intelligence chief himself has exposed the identity of his subordinate, damaging that agent¡¯s veil of anonymity, which will be crucial in future operations. Kim also appeared at the negotiating venue in Afghanistan on Aug. 31, making official the fact that the Korean government had negotiated directly with the Taliban. And that¡¯s why major international news media raised suspicions that Seoul gave money to the Taliban.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Roh Moo-hyun said it was difficult for him to agree with views that the operations of the NIS should always remain clandestine. President Roh added secrecy should protect the function, organization and individual to ensure the success of future operations. But other areas need not be veiled in secrecy, he said. President Roh said when the time is right, he plans to visit the NIS to offer his compliments for the crisis handling. Kim and Roh are cut from the same cloth.
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