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| ▲ Former National Intelligence Service head Park Jie-won arrives at the Seoul Central District Court, in this file photo taken May 19, 2023, to attend a hearing on the death of a South Korean fisheries official, who was shot to death by North Korean soldiers while drifting in the North's territorial waters in the West Sea in September 2020. (Yonhap) |
ex-spy agency chief-questioning
Ex-NIS chief Park Jie-won questioned over alleged illicit hiring charges
SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) -- Former National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Park Jie-won was questioned by police Saturday over charges he had illegally meddled in the organization's hiring decisions.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it summoned Park to question his allegedly illicit role in hiring people close to him for a NIS-affiliated agency.
Last month, another ex-NIS chief, Suh Hoon, was interrogated by police over the same charges.
Suh served as NIS director from 2017-20, and Park from 2020-22, both under the previous Moon Jae-in administration.
The spy agency reportedly learned of such hirings in a recent internal inspection of personnel affairs during the Moon administration and requested a police investigation.
Suh, who also worked as the national security adviser for Moon, was arrested in December last year over alleged irregularities surrounding the 2020 death of a South Korean fisheries official at the hands of North Korea. He was granted bail in April.
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