The police have decided not to pursue charges against the National Election Commission (NEC) despite the agency’s failure to take action after receiving notifications from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) about North Korean hacking attempts.
On December 5, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Investigation Unit of the Southern Gyeonggi Police Agency announced that it had concluded its investigation into NEC officials, including Chairman Noh Tae-ack. The officials were initially accused of forgery of public documents, dereliction of duty, and destruction of evidence, but the police found no grounds for prosecution.
In May 2023, several media outlets reported allegations that North Korea had attempted to hack the NEC eight times between 2021 and 2023. The NIS had reportedly informed the Commission of these attempts, but the NEC allegedly took no action.
In response to these allegations, the NIS conducted a joint security inspection with the NEC and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) from July 17 to September 22 of the same year. In October, the NIS announced that it had uncovered multiple vulnerabilities in the Commission’s voting and vote-counting systems, as well as its internal networks.
Following this announcement, four conservative civic groups, including the New National University Representatives Council, filed complaints against Chairman Noh and other NEC officials.
After a two-year investigation, the police concluded that there were no grounds for prosecution. They determined that the NEC was unaware of the hacking attempts until notified by the NIS and that the Commission’s subsequent actions, such as formatting computers and conducting malware checks, did not constitute neglect of duty or destruction of evidence. The police also noted that the NEC had not disposed of their computers even after learning of the attempts.
The police also found that the allegations of forgery of public documents in the NEC’s response to the NIS announcement were unfounded.
At the time of the NIS announcement, the NEC had stated that this scenario is virtually impossible without the organized participation of internal accomplices.
The police interpreted this statement as the NEC’s own analysis of the situation and did not find it to contradict objective facts.