South Korean illegal surveillance incident

Korean name
Hangul	민간인 불법사찰 사건
Hanja
Revised Romanization	Minganin Bulbeopsachal Sageon
McCune–Reischauer	Min'ganin Pulbŏpsach'al Sagŏn

The South Korean illegal surveillance incident (Korean: 민간인 불법사찰 사건, or illegal civilian surveillance incident) was alleged to have occurred in 2010 when the Civil Service Ethics Division (공직윤리지원관실) under the Prime Minister's Office of South Korea inspected a civilian, a political action that is illegal under the South Korean conventions. The incident re-emerged in early 2012 as the election approached.

The surveillance scandal originally developed as an investigation of a South Korean civilian named Kim Jong-ik (Korean: 김종익), a bank worker who posted in his blog a video clip Jwiko (Korean: 쥐코) that lampooned President Lee Myung-bak as a rat in a fashion from the movie, Sicko. This has generated multiple controversies such as concerns of Internet censorship and political misconducts. In a March 2012 interview of Kim Jong-ik, he said has been "emotionally scarred" and was forced to resign his position at his company and move to Japan. He had lost his means to support his family and accumulated debt. Kim did not know why he himself was singled out as a target, as many others had posted the same video. He expressed deep concerns towards the government of this happening again.

In 2012, The Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea (SPO) has decided to reopen the case based on testimonies of the bureau insider, Jang Jin-su (장진수). A special team of prosecutors was formed to investigate the surveillance incident and a potential cover up.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea raided the Prime Minister's Office for the first time in its history on July 9, 2010. The SPO eventually discovered an alleged concealment of evidences. Former Presidential Secretary for Employment and Labor Relations, Lee Young-ho (이영호), was banned from leaving the country for his involvement in incident.

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Wikipedia