95% of Packet Monitoring on KakaoTalk, Naver Line Performed by NIS

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has been found to have carried out most of the packet monitoring on messenger services such as KakaoTalk and Naver Line.

Democratic United Party lawmaker Jun Byung-hyun, a member of the Science, ICT, Future Planning, Broadcasting and Communications Committee of the National Assembly, said that 95 percent of annual packet monitoring is performed by the NIS, based on a report recently submitted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

According to the report, the Web monitoring was conducted on a total of 1,887 lines last year with 401 monitoring permits issued, and 1,798 out of these were done by the intelligence agency. Between 2010 and 2013, packet monitoring by the prosecution and the police decreased, whereas that by the NIS increased by 42 percent. According to the ministry’s data, an average of 5.4 lines were monitored in 2013 based on each packet monitoring warrant of the NIS for communications restrictions.

“Although the Supreme Court is regarding Internet messenger messages not as a monitoring target, KakaoTalk has provided chats more than necessary, even without putting effort into authoritative interpretation as to the warrant,” he said, adding, “KakaoTalk chats between approximately 300 users have been unduly provided in view of the average number of the lines covered by each warrant.”