DP cautious about expanding espionage charges to foreign nations

[Anchor]

The amendment work to expand the scope of the espionage law from hostile countries to foreign countries has hit a snag.

The Democratic Party, which had agreed with the ruling party to amend the law, suddenly took a cautious stance, citing the possibility of misuse.

It seems unlikely that the bill will be processed before the end of this year as initially hoped.

Reporter Lee Yoo-min has the details.

[Report]

In June, Chinese students were caught by the police after illegally flying drones to photograph a U.S. aircraft carrier and submarine at the Busan naval base.

Contacts of Chinese public security officials were even found on their mobile phones.

However, under current law, the espionage law only applies to acts against the hostile country North Korea, making it difficult to punish them under the espionage law.

As a result, a bill to amend the criminal law to expand the scope of the espionage law from hostile countries to foreign countries was promoted, and recently it passed the subcommittee of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee with an agreement from both ruling and opposition parties, making it likely to pass the plenary session by the end of the year.

However, the Democratic Party has put the brakes on the process.

They changed their position, arguing that the scope of national and military secrets is ambiguous and that there are concerns about misuse, suggesting that existing special laws related to industrial and military secrets should be amended first.

[Noh Jong-myun/Democratic Party Spokesperson: "If there is a possibility of misuse, we need a mechanism to prevent it. We are not opposed to the expansion to foreign countries itself, but there are internal concerns about the possibility of misuse, and we are in the process of reviewing that..."]

The People Power Party raised questions about the Democratic Party's change in stance.

Recently, the Board of Audit and Inspection referred officials from the Moon Jae-in administration for investigation on suspicion of leaking military secrets related to the THAAD deployment to China and civic groups, which they believe is not unrelated to this issue.

[Choo Kyung-ho/People Power Party Floor Leader: "If they oppose governing the overseas leakage of military and industrial secrets with the espionage law, I cannot help but question whether the Democratic Party's identity is indeed that of a South Korean political party."]

As the Democratic Party returns to a cautious stance, the atmosphere for processing the espionage law amendment by the end of the year seems to be fading.

In the meantime, the Ministry of National Defense stated that it is necessary to supplement the laws to allow for stricter penalties regarding the leakage of national secrets.

KBS News, Lee Yoo-min.