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Roundup: S. Korea names spy agency chief as presidential chief of staff

Xinhua, February 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday named National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Lee Byung-ki as new presidential chief of staff, the presidential office said.

Lee, 69, former South Korean ambassador to Japan, was nominated as the spy agency chief in June 2014. He was a career diplomat, but he has been involved in politics for a long time and served as deputy NIS chief in late 1990s.

He helped Park during the 2007 primary for then ruling party's presidential candidate, where Park lost to former President Lee Myung-bak who served as head of state from 2008 to 2012. He was believed at that time to be one of few closest aides to Park who can directly make a political advice to her.

During the 2012 presidential election where Park was elected president, the new chief of staff was an advisor at a political think tank of the ruling party, which provided campaign strategies for Park.

Since Park took office in February 2013, Lee was nominated as South Korean ambassador to Japan before being named as NIS chief in June 2014.

Under the Kim Young-sam administration from 1993 to 1997, Lee served as deputy NIS chief in charge of foreign affairs and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for two years.

During the 2002 presidential election, Lee was involved in a political scandal by offering 500 million won (456,000 U.S. dollars) of illegal funds to a heavyweight political figure of an opposition party, asking the figure to help then ruling party candidate Lee Hoe-chang. Lee escaped judicial punishment as he was a simple conveyor of the funds.

Rival political parties said the Lee nomination was not appropriate. Yoo Seung-min, the ruling party's floor leader, told reporters that it was regrettable for Lee to go to the presidential office just eight months after being named as NIS chief.

Kim Young-rok, spokesman of the main opposition party, said in a briefing that it was an unprecedentedly wrong nomination as spy agency chief "working in shade" was moved to a position of presidential chief of staff who is at the center of state affairs.

Meanwhile, President Park named Lee Byung-ho, former deputy head of the NIS, as new chief of the intelligence agency.

Lee, who graduated from the Korea Military Academy, is a veteran spy agent. He worked at two NIS predecessors, namely the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) and the National Security Planning Agency (NSPA).

He served as director-general of the NSPA's international department in 1988, before moving to the United States in 1990. Lee came back to South Korea in 1993 after being named as deputy NSPA chief in charge of the DPRK and foreign affairs.

The president also nominated a former journalist as senior presidential press secretary, while naming three ruling party lawmakers as special presidential advisors for political affairs. Endi