[News Today] NEC HITS BACK AT YOON’S CLAIM

[LEAD]
In his address yesterday, President Yoon cited security issues at the National Election Commission as one of the reasons for declaring martial law. The NEC rebutted, stating that the identified risks were overstated and had been addressed. Even so, questions arise whether the President should have directed the Minister of National Defense, who is not in charge of such duty, to inspect these systems.

[REPORT]
Following martial law declaration, troops barged into the National Election Commission and made their way to the data server room.

Moon Sang-ho / Defense Intelligence Command chief (Dec. 10, Defense committee)
Our task was to locate the server room and stay there until handing it over to another team when they arrive.

President Yoon Suk Yeol said that he ordered an inspection of the computer system due to vulnerable security conditions at the election watchdog.

The security concern has been a constant issue including an incident in October last year when the computer of an NEC employee infected with a malicious code led to a data leak.

Allegations of election fraud reignited after a security consulting session carried out by the intel agency last year found that election rigging is possible and can't be ruled out.

The National Intelligence Service at the time said that even North Korean hackers could infiltrate into the NEC's internal network and manipulate election outcomes.

Yoon Suk Yeol / President
I was shocked by NIS report. If computer system that manages elections, the bedrock of democracy, is in shambles, how can the public trust the result?

However the NEC stressed that while the consulting did uncover partial vulnerabilities, there was no evidence of a North Korean hacker intrusion.

The agency said that election fraud is possible when there's assistance by many insiders and criticized Yoon's speech as denying a system through which he himself became president.

The NEC said that together with the NIS, another inspection was conducted in January at which time all the previous flaws were addressed and no additional pointers were made.

The commission believes that even if there is a security issue, that's an administrative and technical matter and doesn't change the fact that the troop mobilization was an illegal, unconstitutional act.