(EDITORIAL from Korea Times on August 5)

Debate is heating up in the National Assembly regarding a possible revision of the Criminal Law to redefine espionage activities following the indictment of Sue Mi Terry for her alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Such a development, albeit belated, is more than welcome. And the current debate should serve as a conduit for the introduction of South Korea's own version of the FARA, and, as a result, those who received funds from and who work for foreign governments without declaring their identities can face punishment, regardless of their nationality. Measures like these are needed to safeguard the nation from foreign countries' influence operations. Partisan politics in national security is not acceptable. The ruling People Power Party (PPP), the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and other minor parties should team up to draw up a bipartisan bill requiring agents for foreign governments to comply with the law and approve it swiftly, so that the revised mea sure can take effect as soon as possible. The current Criminal Act stipulates that people working for an "enemy state" or those who were aware of others' espionage activities but failed to report them to the related law enforcement authorities will face up to capital punishment. With this stipulation, the law identifies North Korea as the sole enemy and those who work for the North are subject to the espionage law. The law is outdated. Western countries have been exploring measures that can help them cut off foreign interference in local politics, while autocratic countries like China and Russia are launching massive campaigns to influence local politics. Funding politicians, academics, other experts and even journalists and spreading misinformation to sow seeds of distrust are some of the known tactics of influence operations. The U.S., Canada and Australia have taken various measures, including the closure of state-run Confucius Institutes, in response to China's influence operations in their territories. Like these countries, South Korea is also wrestling with foreign interference. But there is no law in place to punish the initiators of foreign interference and people who act on their directions. The problem of South Korea's lack of such a law was addressed last year when the nation learned China allegedly ran more than one secret police station on its soil. One of them was, in appearance, a Chinese restaurant in southern Seoul. Operated by a Chinese national, the restaurant was believed to have served as a front for China's secret police who are tasked with the mission of monitoring Chinese dissidents and Chinese nationals critical of their government and repatriating them back to China. The operator of the Chinese restaurant and his wife were arrested. But investigators couldn't charge them with espionage offenses because there is no law that can be applied. Earlier this year, the prosecution indicted the couple for other minor offenses, including violations of the Food Sanitation Act. South Korea's leg islation failure flared up again recently after the U.S. prosecution indicted Sue Mi Terry, a senior fellow at the New York-based U.S. foreign policy think tank Council on Foreign Relations, of allegedly having served as an agent for South Korea without registration, which if true is a violation of the FARA. Last week, Rep. Park Sun-won of the DPK submitted a revision bill calling for altering Korea's Criminal Act. In the proposed bill, Park puts forth revising the law to redefine espionage activities to include acts sponsored by any foreign countries. The ruling party concurred with the need to redefine espionage activities. Han Dong-hoon, chairman of the PPP, said the ruling party is willing to cooperate with the DPK to introduce the revision bill. His remark came days after an unnamed military staffer working at the Defense Intelligence Command was arrested for allegedly leaking a list of military intelligence agents engaged in covert operations overseas to collect intelligence about North Korea. The incident raised a red flag. Han said intelligence is a key "weapon" directly related to national security, blaming the DPK for its alleged reluctance to pass the bill during the previous National Assembly. But there is a factual error in Han's remark. It's true that the revision bill was proposed during the 21st National Assembly and it failed to get the nod from the Assembly. But it's not true that the DPK didn't cooperate. The Office of Court Administration was negative about the revision bill and this explains why the previous attempt to revise the Criminal Act didn't come to fruition. Now is the time for the National Assembly to draw up legislation to require people who are funded to work for any foreign governments as agents to register and declare their identities, so that the Korean public is not duped by their influence operations. Source: Yonhap News Agency