'These files are an unfortunate history of both the ruling and the main opposition parties,' Park said in the broadcast. On Friday, Park said that destroying the files was one thing he couldn't do while he was in charge of the agency and regretted not having done it. 'I only made the remark while I was lamenting that a legislative procedure at the National Assembly over whether to destroy the files or not wasn't finalized but instead fizzled out.' 'I had shared my opinion about the X-files with my colleagues in both the ruling party and the main opposition party as well as journalists,' Park said in his apology. Park, who returned to the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) following his resignation from the NIS, also said in his apology that he had mentioned the files only out of concern that they could be manipulated by lawmakers as means of a political attack. 'Regardless of the reason, if it is burdensome to the NIS, of which I was proudly a part, and its employees, then I will be more careful from now on in my public remarks,' he said in the post. The files, stored in the government's main computer servers or in other forms of records, contained various rumors and information obtained illicitly, including on how certain politicians made money or which politicians had a romantic fling with which celebrities, according to Park. Park had said in the show that the classified 'X-files' were being collected from the time of the Park Chung-hee government in the early 1960s to the end of Park Geun-hye's presidency in 2017. The liberal lawmaker, who became chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 2020 and stepped down last May, posted an apologetic statement on Facebook on Saturday regarding his controversial remarks on a CBS radio show aired last Friday. Experts were divided over whether Park made the remarks as a political gambit for personal gain or in a whistleblowing effort to stop the agency from further unethical gathering of information. The country's former spy agency chief Park Jie-won has found himself at the center of controversy after he publicly disclosed the agency has been secretly compiling dossiers on politicians, entrepreneurs and journalists.

YonhapĮxperts say it's either a self-serving political move or whistleblowing attempt to warn about NIS' illegal practices Former National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won, right, and Kwon No-gab, an adviser to the Democratic Party of Korea, greet each other at Seoul National Cemetery in southern Seoul's Dongjak District, where a commemoration event for the third death anniversary of former first lady Lee Hee-ho was held, June 10.

Classified file spy folder