'Budget support for National Security Office under Yoon administration'... Police search NIS twice

[The Financial News] Police have searched the NIS twice in connection with allegations that it improperly provided budget funds to the Presidential Office’s National Security Office during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
According to police and other sources on the 11th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit searched the NIS in January and September, securing related documents and electronic data. Police are also said to have summoned and questioned around 20 current and former employees, including the NIS’s then head of the Planning and Coordination Office.
Police launched an investigation last October after Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Sun-won filed a complaint alleging that, early in the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, the NIS provided budget funds at the National Security Office’s request, in violation of the National Finance Act and other laws. Article 47 of the act prohibits state agencies from using one another’s budgets.
According to the NIS’s internal investigation, in July 2022, then NIS Director Kim Gyu-hyeon approved a plan for an “influence-building project for Korea” at the National Security Office’s request. The stated aim was to secure diplomatic support for South Korea overseas. Over roughly a year, through June of the following year, some 170 million won was spent on 50 occasions.
However, records of actual spending reportedly included numerous expenses for meals and advisory meetings with domestic journalists, businesspeople and professors. According to the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Yoon Geon-young, foreigners were met in just 8 of the 50 cases, while 38 were charged as contacts with South Korean nationals. The costs of boxed lunches for internal National Security Office meetings were also included.
The NIS reportedly concluded in its internal investigation that the project had been carried out differently from the original plan and had produced little result. However, it took no separate action, saying it was unclear whether the conduct was illegal.
Police are investigating, based on the materials they secured and statements from those involved, whether there was any illegal conduct in the budget execution process.
[email protected] Choi Seung-han Reporter