“If cooperation is delayed, is it just a reminder?” National Police Agency's National Inspection Office cooperates with overseas investigations

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporters Han Ji-eun, Jeon Jae-hoon, and Yoon Min-hyuk = In the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee's audit of the National Police Agency on the 12th, the limits of overseas investigative cooperation were put on the chopping block in the wake of the financial institution hacking incident.

People Power Party lawmaker Park Sang-woong mentioned an incident in which the personal information of approximately 70,000 customers and employees of a domestic financial institution was leaked through a hacking attack using artificial intelligence (AI), and asked whether the culprit was believed to be Chinese.

Acting Police Commissioner Kim Jong-cheol responded, “I saw that some media outlets reported speculative articles.” When asked about the need for cooperation with overseas investigative agencies, he said, “Of course.”

Rep. Park then pointed out that there was no response to 56% of requests last year regarding overall cooperation in overseas investigations and asked why.

Acting Director Kim said, “It is a matter of determining cooperation within the legal system of the relevant country,” and explained that Korea has also joined the Budapest Convention, an international convention on cybercrime, and the domestic legislative process has been completed.

Representative Park asked for further explanation, asking, “If cooperation with China is so delayed, what role can we play? Are we just urging them to do so? Are there any other countermeasures?”

Regarding the Coupang personal information leak case, the police have been investigating since November of last year and have booked A, a former Chinese employee who was in charge of authentication system development at Coupang, as a suspect, but they have not yet been able to bring him to Korea and are continuing discussions with the Chinese side.

When Representative Hong Seok-ki of the National Investigation Headquarters pointed out that "the Coupang case, which is causing public outrage, is being delayed too much," he responded, "We are discussing with China."

When asked whether the whereabouts of the suspects who escaped were known, Director Hong said, "We are discussing with China about some suspects."

Regarding the status of the accomplice investigation, he responded, “We are continuing to confirm and supplement through international cooperation.”

Rep. Park Sang-woong also raised suspicions that the 14,000 body cameras distributed by the police to the scene were made in China and that investigative information could be leaked to China.

Acting Police Commissioner Kim Jong-cheol said, "After a related issue was raised, we received a thorough evaluation from professional organizations such as the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), and as a result, there were no special problems with network security, and no backdoor (a type of secret passage that allows unauthorized access to the system) was detected."

He then said that he had received a reply from KT, the supplier, that the body camera was not made in China, and that he would consider filing a claim for damages if it were revealed to be a Chinese product.

When asked if there were plans to suspend supply until the results of a detailed analysis of the country of manufacture were released, the response was, "If the device is recalled in a situation where there is no clear basis for data leakage, I am concerned about a vacuum in security at the site."

He said, "I understand that the audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection is in its final stages. We will quickly prepare follow-up measures depending on the results."