Twenty-six people appeared as witnesses in the second hearing of the parliamentary investigation on the National Intelligence Service (NIS) on August 19. Among them, four NIS agents--Park Won-dong, former chief of the national interest information bureau, Min Byeong-ju, former head of the psychological warfare division, Choi, former head of the psychological warfare team, and the female NIS agent who posted the online comments--testified behind a white screen.

Ruling party lawmakers made comments at some witnesses provoking regionalism. Meanwhile, they guaranteed witnesses who testified in favor of the ruling party plenty of time to explain, earning remarks like, "They're like their public defenders."

Saenuri lawmaker Cho Myung-chul asked the former investigation chief at the Seoul Suseo Police Station Kwon Eun-hee, "Are you an officer of Gwangju or an officer of the Republic of Korea?" When Kwon asked back, "What is the intent of the question?" Cho pressed on, "Answer the question." Kwon answered, "All police officers are an officer of the Republic of Korea." Cho then asked, "Then why are you dubbed, 'daughter of Gwangju'?" Kwon, who is from Gwangju, graduated from Chonnam National University's School of Law in 1997 and passed the bar exam in 2001 (43rd bar exam). In 2005, she was recruited as chief superintendent (a managerial position at local police stations).

When Kim Sang-wuk, a former NIS agent who is also from Gwangju, stood as a witness, Lee Jang-woo of the Saenuri Party also pointed out, "In the website of the thirtieth class of Chosun University High School, you wrote 'Lawmaker Park Jie-won said that he helped get DJ (former President Kim Dae-jung) elected despite risks as a public official'." This is in line with Saenuri Party's strategy to define this parliamentary investigation as a "spoils system" between the Democratic Party and the former and incumbent NIS agents.

Saenuri lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong gave Lee Jong-myeong, a former NIS assistant chief time to express his personal thoughts on this case. Lee began by saying, "I spent 36 years of my life in the military," and spent more than two minutes defending himself before ending with the words, "I dare ask the people to support the activities of the NIS."

In room 245 at the National Assembly where the hearings were held, a screen made with white cloth was installed behind the witness stand. A screen was also installed in a 10m passageway from the left of the entrance to the concealed witness stand. Behind the screen, the nameplates placed before the four NIS agents only stated the last names and positions of the agents instead of their names: "Chief Park," "Chief Min," "Team Head Choi," "Agent Kim."

Before the hearing, the intelligence service requested that their agents be called by their last name and position instead of their real name according to their regulation on managing confidential operations. The NIS agents behind the screen mostly refused to answer questions by opposition lawmakers claiming it was related to the trial or that it was confidential information and avoided answers by claiming they did not remember. Among the former and incumbent NIS agents Lee Jong-myeong who was an assistant chief and engaged in political services was the only person to sit in an open witness stand.

The screen was installed for the first time since 2004, when it was placed to protect the identities of witnesses at a hearing on the death of Kim Sun-il, a trading company employee who was killed in Iraq.

Initially, the lawmakers only saw the shadows of the agents behind the screen. Kim Han-gil, leader of the Democratic Party who sat among the audience said, "What is that? Are they going to confession?" After a battle which lasted two hours, they cut the lower half of the screen in the afternoon as requested by the opposition parties and revealed the hands and chests of the witnesses.

Kim, the female NIS agent rushed out of the room when the hearing was adjourned after the disruptions in the morning session. She wore a black blouse with a flower-pattern skirt and high heels; she had a yellow envelope in her hands; and she covered her face with a white fan. Last December, when the allegations of Kim's online comments first surfaced, Kim wore a cap and a mask to hide her face when escaping from her studio apartment in Yeoksam-dong.

The ruling and opposition party lawmakers engaged in a fierce argument all morning on whether to reveal the faces of former chiefs Park Won-dong and Min Byeong-ju. In the process, lawmakers exchanged heated words, such as "a group of coarse words," "Kick him out," "Are you deaf?" and "You're inherently hopeless."

The hearing this day was interrupted three times. When Chairman Shin Ki-nam, a Democratic lawmaker, asked Democratic lawmaker Kang Gi-jung, who appeared as a witness this day, for his thoughts on the hearing, Saenuri lawmakers walked out in the evening and late at night claiming that the chairman was proceeding in a biased direction. Earlier in the morning, the Saenuri administrator, lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong also led fellow Saenuri lawmakers and walked out after the two-hour battle concerning the screen.