SEOUL | South Korea’s spies had information indicating North Korea might attack a front-line island in August, but the intelligence chief dismissed it as a routine threat.
Yeonpyeong Island, a tiny enclave of civilians and military bases located near a disputed maritime border, endured a barrage of North Korean shells last week, and lawmakers in Seoul slammed the government Thursday for the intelligence failure.
The surprise revelation came the day before in an unusually candid private briefing by spy chief Won Sei-hoon.
In the wake of the attack - in which two South Korean marines and two civilians died - the defense minister has resigned. President Lee Myung-bak has been criticized for leading a military whose response to the attack was seen as too slow and too weak: The North fired 170 rounds, compared with 80 returned by South Korea.
Mr. Won told lawmakers that South Korea had intercepted North Korean military communications in August that indicated Pyongyang was preparing to attack Yeonpyeong and other islands in a disputed slice of sea that often has been the focus of North Korean aggression.
Mr. Won didn’t expect that attack to be on civilian areas and considered it a “routine threat,” according to the office of lawmaker Choi Jae-sung, who attended the closed-door session.
“Our intelligence system didn’t work,” Jun Byung-hun, the chief policymaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, said in a statement Thursday.
The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.
“It’s a clear dereliction of duty by the military and intelligence authorities,” the conservative Munhwa Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial Thursday. “It frankly showed the national security system is basically in serious disorder.”
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to play down Mr. Won’s comments, saying the intelligence was that North Korea had ordered its troops to prepare to return fire should South Korea conduct artillery drills.
That explanation did nothing to cool anger among opposition lawmakers, many of whom already were critical of Mr. Lee’s handling of the attack.
Democratic Party floor leader Park Jie-won said even with the world’s best weapons, the government “cannot guarantee our national security” if intelligence and military authorities aren’t capable of analyzing information.
Meanwhile, about 700 conservative activists rallied against the North, chanting slogans like “Let’s retaliate!” and waving small South Korean national flags at an auditorium in Seoul.
Won also told lawmakers that North Korea is likely to strike again. He said the North probably carried out last week’s attack in part because it needed a “breakthrough” amid internal dissatisfaction over a plan to transfer power from Kim Jong-il to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, Mr. Choi’s office said.
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