After all obsession about anti-terror bill, gov’t fails in its own security

After all obsession about anti-terror bill, gov’t fails in its own security. April. 07, 2016 07:17. .

Right after North Korea’s long-range missile launch following a nuclear test in January, South Korea’s president office Cheong Wa De and the government strongly demanded that the National Assembly pass an anti-terrorism bill. They also mentioned the North’s possible assassination attempts against key political and government figures and North Korean defectors in Seoul. In a speech to the parliament in February, President Park Geun-hye urged lawmakers to pass the anti-terrorism bill to protect the people’s security because terrorists could infiltrate the country to jeopardize the people’s safety. Several days later, she hit her table with her hand, complaining about the parliament’s inaction over the bill.

It has turned out that between late February and late March, when the whole country was on a heightened alert, a university student who applied to a state-administered examination for hiring new government employees sneaked in and out of the government complex in central Seoul six times to manipulate the list of applicants who passed the exam in his favor. The Ministry of the Interior, which is in charge of the building’s security, and the Ministry of Personnel Management, which had a hole in its own security, had no idea about the break-ins. Had he been a terrorist, the government could have suffered from huge casualties and property damage. How could the central government complex be infiltrated by a university student at the time of the highest security alert? The government has no excuse for the incident.

The break-ins could have been prevented had the government officials who had their ID cards stolen reported the losses in a timely manner. Security guards failed to compare the photos on the ID cards and the holder’s actual face. Were the measures useless that were announced after a man in his 60s entered the complex with a fake ID card in 2012 to set himself on fire and jump out of the window? We are dumbfounded by the government’s excuse that the Ministry of Personnel Management’s gate security had been slackened as the ministry was preparing to move to the new government complex in Sejong. Anyone could use its computers just by inserting a thumb drive with the Linux operating system. The ministry was defenseless even though a university student was able to hack into its system.

The government should take stern disciplinary measures against those in charge of security and offer a public apology for having major faults in its entrance security system. In addition, it should thoroughly re-examine the security of other major state facilities and installations.