Japanese Journalist Indicted for Defaming Park Geun-hye Appointed as National Intelligence Bureau Analyst

【Financial News Tokyo=Correspondent Hye-jin Seo】Tatsuya Kato, the former Seoul bureau chief of Sankei Shimbun who was indicted in South Korea on charges of defaming former President Park Geun-hye but was ultimately acquitted, has been appointed as an intelligence-analysis specialist at Japan’s National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).
According to The Asahi Shimbun on the 3rd, the Japanese government appointed Kato, the former bureau chief, as an intelligence-analysis specialist in the Cabinet Intelligence Analysis Office of the NIB, which was established at the end of July. He took up the post on the 1st.
While serving as Seoul bureau chief in 2014, Kato wrote an article about then-President Park Geun-hye’s whereabouts on the day of the sinking of the ferry MV Sewol. He was later indicted without detention in South Korea on charges of defaming Park, but the court acquitted him, and the ruling became final.
In 2021, he was appointed as a cabinet counselor at the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, the predecessor to the NIB, and handled intelligence-related work for the Japanese government. With this appointment, he will serve as a specialist analyzing domestic and international intelligence at the newly established national intelligence agency.
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