National Intelligence Service (South Korea)

National Intelligence Service (South Korea)

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is the chief intelligence agency of South Korea. The agency was officially established in 1961 as the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) (중앙정보부), during the rule of Dictator Park Chung-hee's military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, which displaced the Second Republic of South Korea. The original duties of the KCIA were to supervise and coordinate both international and domestic intelligence activities and criminal investigation by all government intelligence agencies, including that of the military. The agency's broad powers allowed it to actively intervene in politics.

The agency took on the name Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP) (국가안전기획부) in 1981, as part of a series of reforms instituted by the Fifth Republic of South Korea under Dictator Chun Doo-hwan. The ANSP is colloquially known as 안기부 "Angibu" in South Korea. Besides trying to acquire intelligence on North Korea and suppress South Korean activists, the ANSP, like its predecessor, was heavily involved in activities outside of its sphere, including domestic politics and even promoting the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

In 1999, the agency assumed its current name. The advent of democracy in the Sixth Republic of South Korea has seen many of the duties and powers of the NIS curtailed, in response to public criticisms about past abuses.