Moon Administration’s CIO / Gongsoocheo Spies on Journalists, Opposition Politicians, Students, and Other Civilians

Updated on 2022-1-9: The CIO / Gong soocheo monitored the electronic communications of over 300 people, as of 9 a.m., January 7, 2022. They include 170 foreign and domestic journalists and their families, scholars, university students, and YouTubers. The CIO also targeted the main opposition figures, including 93 of 105 People Power Party lawmakers.

2022-1-3, Tara O

The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) for High Ranking Officials or Gongsoocheo (공수처) was established after the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (Deobureo Minjoo Party) forced law that created CIO through the National Assembly despite heavy opposition from the main opposition party and the public.  It was deemed so dangerous that a man even set himself on fire to protest the passing of the CIO law.  See here and here for more details.  They were afraid that CIO  would be used for political purposes.

The concerns have become reality.  It came to light that CIO illegally monitored the phone calls and communications of numerous journalists, citizens, and those in the opposition camp, including the presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl.

The CIO monitored the electronic communications of 230 people, including 130 journalists who wrote critical articles about CIO.  The monitored  journalists are from various media companies:  Chosun Ilbo, Munhwa Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, Channel A, PennMike, NewDaily, Newsis, News1, JTBC, KyungHyang, CBS No Cut News, Hankuk Ilbo (Korea Times), Asia Today, Yonhap News TV, MBN, Herald Kyungje, YTN, Hankyoreh, Busan Ilbo, eDaily, DailyAn, and foreign media, including Asahi Shimbun.  Hyperliked are the details on CIO monitoring the communications of TV Chosun, PennMike, NewDaily, and Asahi Shimbun.

The Korea Newspaper Editors Association, The Korean Newspaper Association, the Korean Women’s Journalists Association, and the Korea Internet Newspaper Association have condemned the CIO’s activities by stating, “It is an abuse of investigative powers and an unequivocal criminal act for an investigative agency to monitor journalists and civilians for no good reason.”  The media associations also pointed out that the majority of the journalists who CIO monitored wrote articles critical of CIO, and compared it to a vengeful action.

University students also denounced CIO’s actions.  ShinJeonDaeHyub, a nation-wide university students association, attached posters on 113 university campuses and human rights memorials titled “The Moon Jae-in Government’s Monitoring of University Students’ Communications.”  According to the student association, between March and November 2021, CIO monitored the communications of six of its members, who placed other posters on campuses or were meeting for study sessions.  They asked “Are we high-ranking officials (CIO is supposed to investigate high-ranking officials for corruption) or criminals, or are we in possession of seditious books? and further expressed whether the CIO’s next step is to frame them and to force confessions from them.

CIO also monitored other civilians as well as at least 78 opposition officials and staff, as of December 29, 2021.  That includes the People Power Party’s presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl and his wife Kim Keon-hee, which raises the question about the CIO potentially violating the Election Law.

These activities raise questions. Is this the beginning of civil rights violations by the CIO? Who checks and balances the so-called Corruption Investigation Office for High Ranking Officials?