‪President Park Geun-hye has remained silent for over two weeks since the National Intelligence Service's hacking scandal surfaced. During yesterday's cabinet meeting, the president stressed reforms in state administration as if giving a lecture for sixteen minutes, but did not mention a word on the alleged hacking and monitoring of civilians by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), currently the hottest issue among the people. Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Min Kyung-wook also said he had nothing to say on that issue. Even when we consider the position of the NIS, which works in secret, and the position of President Park, who has already suffered from the intelligence agency's alleged involvement in the presidential election, the current silence is too much.

Article 2 of the National Intelligence Service Act stipulates, "The National Intelligence Service lies directly under the president; receives orders from the president; and is subject to the president's supervision." It also states that when the intelligence service monitors or wiretaps a North Korean national or foreigners suspected of espionage or terrorism, it must receive the president's permission once every four months. Thus, it does not make sense that the president, who is the ultimate leader of the intelligence service, is ignoring the suspicious illegal activities of the NIS for over two weeks. When Park was the leader of the Grand National Party, when the party was the opposition in 2005, the intelligence service admitted that it had engaged in wiretapping during the Kim Dae-jung government, but that it had suspended such operations under the Roh Moo-hyun government. At the time, Park said, "How can anyone tell? If you want to say that you have stopped wiretapping, you need to prove it until the people can believe that." Where has her awareness of human rights, which once rebuked the National Intelligence Service, gone?

The president holds the key to clarifying the truth in the latest incident. We were able to confirm the wiretapping by the NIS in 2005 because President Roh Moo-hyun clearly said, "The government must thoroughly disclose the illegal activities of state agencies as they are," in a meeting with his senior secretaries. President Park should also follow in Roh's footsteps and order an investigation that leaves no suspicions unanswered. Otherwise, the truth of this matter can be buried. In that sense, the president's current silence cannot be just silence. It is easy for her silence to be misunderstood--that the president is siding with the NIS and is hoping that the truth not be revealed. If the president is of such a position, then it will be difficult to uncover the truth even if the prosecutors later launch an investigation, and citizens will not trust the results.

Yesterday, according to a survey by one survey firm, 52.9% of the total respondents answered that they believed the hacking program purchased by the intelligence service was used in monitoring civilians. That was twice the number of respondents who said that the intelligence service probably used the hacking program only on anti-terrorist and anti-North Korea projects (26.9%). This shows that more and more people seem to believe that the goal of the intelligence service's hacking operations was to keep an eye on South Korean citizens. Yet the president remains suspiciously silent without a word, allowing for the people's trust in state administration to crash. If the president does not want politicians debating over the request for an investigation into the truth of the latest incident, she should take on the responsibility and step forward before it is too late.