S. Korean spy agency admits Gmail account monitoring: report

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, leads; ADDS more details in last 3 paras) By Lee Youkyung SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's national spy agency has admitted that it monitored a Google Inc.'s Gmail account of a citizen accused of violating the national security law, a local newspaper reported Friday. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) received a court approval to monitor the Gmail account of Kim Hyung-geun, 52, to collect email evidences regarding his allegedly pro-North Korean activities, the Hankyoreh daily reported, citing a document filed with the Constitutional Court. The NIS argued that "packet monitoring" of Kim's Gmail account was "inevitable" because local citizens evade investigations by seeking a so-called cyber exile in foreign email services, rendering search warrants ineffective, the agency wrote in the legal document. The court granted access to Kim's Gmail to the agency, according to Hankyoreh. The spy agency likely has the technical skills to monitor the stream of emails sent to and from Gmail accounts and glean information, the report added. It did not say when the monitoring took place nor whether or not Google was notified. A spokesman for the Constitutional Court confirmed that the NIS wrote the document cited in the newspaper but declined to elaborate. Kim Hyung-geun, whose Gmail account was secretly monitored, did not return calls seeking comments. Google spokeswoman in Korea declined to discuss whether the company's email system was compromised by the NIS. "We employ email security technologies that go beyond the industry standard," Kate Park said.