Internal Intelligence Agency (Menghe)
| 대멩 국내 정보국 / 大孟國內情報局 Dae Meng Guknae Jŏngboguk | |
| File:Internal Intelligence Agency Menghe.png Emblem of the Internal Intelligence Agency | |
| File:Internal Intelligence Headquarters Menghe.jpg West wing of IIA Headquarters in Donggyŏng | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 13 July 1988 |
| Preceding agency |
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| Jurisdiction |  Menghe |
| Headquarters | 707 Hakjang-ro, Yŏnjang district, Donggyŏng |
| Motto | Following the path of loyalty 충성의 길을 따라 |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Ministry of Internal Security |
| Child agencies |
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The Internal Intelligence Agency (Menghean: 대멩 국내 정보국 / 大孟國內情報局, Dae Meng Guknae Jŏngboguk, sometimes abbreviated IIA in English-language literature) is an intelligence agency in the Socialist Republic of Menghe. Its missions include surveillance, counter-intelligence, and counter-terrorism, but its jurisdiction is largely limited to within Menghe's borders. Missions outside the country lie with the External Intelligence Agency, which collects intelligence on foreign governments and international terrorist organizations. The two organizations were split in 1988, and have remained separate since then, though there was brief talk of a merger in 2008.
In addition to combating foreign-backed spies and terrorists, the Internal Intelligence Agency also works to suppress opposition movements within Menghe, such as those sympathetic to the Menghean Government in Exile. In this regard, it functions as the regime's secret police. In the thirty years since Choe Sŭng-min came to power, the IIA has engaged in mass surveillance, forced disappearances, coercive interrogation, extrajudicial punishment, and political censorship. It operates its own arrest squads, separate from Menghe's police forces, and is rumored to run a network of secret political prisons.
History
Shortly after the Menghean War of Liberation, the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe established the Ministry of State Security. This organization had broad authority over both domestic and international intelligence activities, and was directly subordinate to the leadership of the Menghe People's Communist Party. A large part of its duty involved collecting information on Army officers; as part of the Sangwŏn Agreement in 1958, the Menghe People's Army was given independence from Communist ideological control, leaving Party leaders concerned about the risk of a coup.
In the wake of the Decembrist Revolution, the Interim Council for National Restoration formally disbanded the Ministry of State Security, fearing that it would attempt a counter-coup. In its place, they drew up a new organization to take over its internal intelligence role. Marshal Choe Sŭng-min was quick to turn the new Internal Intelligence Agency to his advantage, using it to review the loyalty of ex-Communist officials and plant incriminating evidence against his rivals.
The IIA played a prominent role in the political purges of the early 1990s, and has been credited with using methods inherited from the Ministry of State Security to carefully target actual regime opponents and avoid an escalation into indiscriminate political terror.
Duties and functions
The Internal Intelligence Agency's missions relate to two broad spheres of state security. The first is counterintelligence and counter-espionage, the interception of foreign spies operating within Menghe's borders. This includes broad jurisdiction over industrial espionage and economic sabotage, whether by foreign governments or private agents. The agency's counterintelligence mission also extends to counter-terrorism, an especially important mission after a string of radical Shahidist attacks in the mid-2000s.
A 1996 law clarified that the Internal Intelligence Agency's jurisdiction over counter-espionage extended to "self-motivated agents," or individual citizens deliberately working to undermine the Menghean government and economy despite a lack of foreign backing.
The IIA's second sphere of activity is broadly defined as "intelligence support for the goals of the Ministry of Internal Security." During the early 1990s, this mainly meant compiling files on the loyalty of government officials and ex-Communists, and working to compromise potentially damaging individuals. After the purges of the 1990s came to an end, the Internal Intelligence Agency continued turned its vast surveillance apparatus toward the general population, using it to identify and suppress other threats to Choe Sŭng-min's power.
Subordinate bodies
Directorate for the Control of Information
This body is responsible for censorship in Menghe, specifically censorship relating to political or military matters. Review of published works and censorship of "indecent material" is the responsibility of the General-Directorate for Virtue Promotion, part of the Ministry of Culture. Though it does not formally review articles before publication, the Directorate has the power to suppress movies, books, newspapers, television reports, online blogs, or online comments which "aim to spread compromising information or incite subversion among the populace." It has also organized the arrest of several prominent critics of the government, either through fabricated criminal evidence or forced disappearance.
As part of the agency's campaign to combat espionage, the Directorate for the Control of Information is also known to distribute disinformation on the activities of the Menghean Government and its armed forces. This is sometimes done through official publications in the Menghean news media or anonymous news leak websites, but it may also involve the use of moles and converted double agents in foreign intelligence agencies. The purpose of such operations may be to mislead others about Menghe's capabilities, to undermine the credibility of opposition news sources, or generally to sow confusion among foreign intelligence agencies.
The Directorate for the Control of Information also maintains a series of Secret Archives, which contain the full text of censored records not available to the public, including exposé articles that were pulled from the news for revealing sensitive information. Access is restricted to government officials, and there are either four or five levels of clearance (reports by defectors disagree) based on office rank and Party membership.
Special Arrest Units
Better known as the Black Coats (검은 외투, Gŏmŭn Oetu) for their distinctive uniforms, though they may also make plainclothes arrests, these units are a special police force directly subordinate to the Internal Intelligence Agency. This allows the Agency to directly arrest high-risk individuals without relying on the National Armed Police or other law enforcement units. The activities of the Special Arrest Units are kept hidden from public oversight, creating an aura of plausible deniability around the IIA's operations.
The Black Coats are most infamous for their role in the covert arrests and forced disappearances of citizens involved in opposition groups. Depending on the nature of the charges, the suspect may be handed over to the Ministry of Justice with an explanation that they turned themselves in, or they may be held in secret captivity by the Internal Intelligence Agency itself. Some regime critics allege that the Special Arrest Units also maintain a "processing" stage, in which they may engage in coercive interrogation of subjects before passing them on to other agencies.
Internal Political Directorate
The Internal Political Directorate is a body of the Internal Intelligence Agency tasked with the surveillance of government officials in the regime's inner circle, including members of the Supreme Council and Army and Navy High Command. Its duties are to uncover coup plots, identify possible defectors, and investigate high-level corruption cases.
In this regard, it is a parallel organization to the General Directorate for Discipline Inspection, but is targeted at powerful officials who might be able to influence the latter body. In order to secure its ranks against infiltration and favoritism, the Internal Political Directorate of the Intelligence Agency is directly subordinate to Choe Sŭng-min, who can also use it to neutralize potential rivals. It is even tasked with external oversight of the General Directorate for Discipline Inspection itself, monitoring the latter's oversight of the national civil service examination.
Room S
"Room S" is the codename applied to a department of the Internal Intelligence Agency tasked with monitoring the activity of foreigners who legally entered Menghe. Little is known about the actual extent or capabilities of Room S, though it seems to play only a minor role in the Agency's counter-espionage mission. Initial rumors that it tracks all foreign citizens who enter the country are no longer considered credible, but it does have access to entry and movement records from the General Directorate of Immigration and Personal Registration.
Other departments
In addition to the major specialized departments above, the Internal Intelligence Agency contains a number of lower-level directorates, many of them concerned with supporting or administrative tasks:
- Department of Technology and Technological Development
- Department of Personnel, Training, and Education
- Department of Auditing and Supervision (separate from the Internal Political Directorate)
- Department of Publicity and Media Consultation
- Office of Document Circulation
- Party coordination office