Former South Korea spy chief handed suspended jail term for meddling in politics

The former head of South Korea’s spy agency was handed a suspended jail sentence on Thursday following his trial on charges of meddling in the 2012 election that brought current President Park Geun-hye to power.

Won Sei-hoon, 63, was given a two-and-a-half-year sentence – suspended for four years – after he was convicted of illegally engaging in political acts while head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Won had been charged with organising an online smear campaign by NIS agents against the opposition party candidate whom Park defeated in the 2012 poll.

While the Seoul District Court decided he had ordered agents to post politically sensitive comments, it ruled there was not enough evidence to prove he directly sought to influence the outcome of the presidential ballot, Yonhap news agency reported.

The suspended sentence was handed down just two days after Won was released from a two-year jail term for taking bribes.

The national spy agency, which has changed title over the years, had a particularly notorious reputation in the decades of authoritarian rule before South Korea embraced democracy in the 1980s.