The Constitutional Court on Thursday closed the legality case on the state’s wiretapping of civilians, citing the death of the claimant as the reason.

In 2011, a high school teacher surnamed Kim had filed the lawsuit against the state over the legality of the communication restriction measures. Kim claimed that he was unnecessarily wiretapped by the National Intelligence Service while he was under a probe for making up school test questions about the inter-Korean summit deal. Kim was a member of the liberal teachers’ group Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union.


The court said the constitutionality of the communication restriction measures would not be judged as Kim passed away in September last year due to an illness.

Under the rule, the case can be closed if the claimant withdraws the complaint or dies.

The current communications restriction measures allows investigators to monitor the computer screen of civilians in real time using the “packet” wiretapping method -- intercepting the electronic signal of the internet connection -- only for the probes involving crime or national security. For wiretapping, investigators must have a warrant issued by a court.

Unlike other types of communications seize and search, the packet wiretapping allows the investigation agency to collect all data information that an individual shares online, such as emails, files, conversation history on messengers and search history on portal websites.

The procedure has been opposed by critics because of the potential privacy breach. They say that the packet wiretapping method could expose without limit personal information not relevant to the investigation.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)