Ex-spy agency head denies allegation on president’s brother

“Why does he (who works at the National Intelligence Service) need to track officials in the presidential office? That never happened.” Lee Byung-gi, head of the National Intelligence Service, said Wednesday.

He talked about the allegation that a level 1 director of the National Intelligence Agency, who is classified as a man of President Park Geun-hye’s younger brother Ji-man and Cho Eung-cheon, was relegated after providing intelligence on those in the presidential office.

“It cannot be true. I’ve never heard of it,” Nam Jae-joon talked the media report that Park Ji-man asked Nam, the then head of the spy agency, to check security after learning the fact that documents of the Office of the Presidential Secretary for Civil Service Discipline were leaked to outside in early May.

Nam said in a telephone interview with the Dong-A Ilbo on Wednesday, “I don’t know Park Ji-man. So how could I meet him? I have no reason to snoop around things that are not in the scope of my work” to the question whether he met the president’s younger brother. On the allegation that his dismissal in the middle of May was related to Park Ji-man, he said, “It’s not true. I’m 71 years old and I served there for a year and that’s quite long (for my age).”