The controversy over the tapping of personal communications by the authorities has taken a new twist following Prosecutor General Kim Jin-tae’s comments at the parliamentary audit.

During the audit on the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Thursday, Kim stated that the prosecution would directly tap the communication logs of the popular messenger service Kakao Talk even if its operator Daum Kakao refuses to comply with their warrants.

Saying that the authorities need to find ways to access information if the company refuses to comply with its demand, Kim said that the prosecution may employ the services of experts and that the organization is looking into ways to execute related warrants. 

The comments have riled the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, just when the issue appeared to be quietening down, after being overshadowed by other recent controversies.

“This is a grave matter. If cyber surveillance, which is technologically and legally impossible continues to take place, local cyber (industry) companies will experience difficulties and (users) will continue to defect,” Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy said Friday.

“The government, the prosecution in particular, saying that real-time tapping will continue is a concept that goes above the law.”

The ruling Saenuri Party, for its part, is defending the prosecution.

The ruling party lawmakers on the parliamentary Legislation and Judiciary Committee supported Kim saying that he had taken the “right position.”

Ruling party’s Rep. Hong Il-pyo went so far as to say that Kim was displaying the traits of “a true prosecutor.”

While the NPAD focused on the alleged monitoring activities of the prosecution, the ruling party is redirecting the focus of the issue onto “inappropriate expression” used by the prosecution that ignited the controversy.

The ruling party claimed that the use of the phrase “real-time monitoring of the Internet” used at a meeting at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office was the cause of the issue.

Kim apologized for the phrase, saying that it was used to mean that the Internet would be checked in a timely fashion when investigating a defamation case.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)