The spy agency employee, surnamed Lim, was found dead in a vehicle on Saturday on a road in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do province.
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On Tuesday, the NIS released a statement that explained the agency bought specialized hacking programs from Hacking Team, an Italy-based tech company, in 2012.
The revelation is sensitive because the NIS has a history of illegally tapping South Koreans’ private conversations.
The note released by police, who confirmed the writing to be the agent’s, said there was no spying whatsoever against domestic citizens or related to elections.
The BBC’s Stephen Evans, in South Korea, says that the note left by the dead man implies that phones were monitored only to keep tabs on people connected to North Korea and not to besmirch opponents of the right-of-centre president.
“I deleted information that created misunderstandings about our counter-terrorism and covert operations on North Korea…”
Police said the man, identified only by his family name Lim, apparently took his own life after leaving a handwritten will in his auto giving details of how the NIS had used a controversial hacking programme. “But there is nothing to be anxious about over any of my actions”, he said.
The NIS has so far said the program, which uses Remote Control System technology, allows hackers to manipulate and track smartphones and computers by installing spyware.
The spy agency, however, said that those IP addresses were part of some 45,000 addresses found from all over the world and they all probably belong to so-called “zombie” PCs that were mobilized by hackers to try to shut down Hacking Team’s servers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.
Two previous NIS directors, who successively headed the spy service from 1999 and 2003, were convicted and received suspended prison terms for overseeing the monitoring of mobile phone conversations of about 1,800 of South Korea’s political, corporate and media elite.
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A former spy chief under president Park Geun-hye’s predecessor is fighting a guilty conviction for trying to influence the 2012 election.
