Besides trying to acquire intelligence on North Korea and suppress South Korean activists, the ANSP, like its predecessor, was heavily involved in activities outside its sphere, including domestic politics and promoting the 1988 Summer Olympics.

The more democratic and current Sixth Republic of Korea has seen a significant reduction in the role of the NIS in response to public criticisms about past abuses.

[4] The victims became a cause célèbre as the kidnapping created a firestorm of international criticism that almost brought the West German government to break off diplomatic relations with South Korea.

[5] It further served as a harbinger when the much-publicised kidnapping of a dissident, Kim Dae-jung—who would later become the president of Korea and the country’s first Nobel Peace Prize recipient, in 2000—took place in 1973 off the coast of a Japanese resort town.

The KCIA's virtually unlimited and completely unchecked power to arrest and detain any person on any charge created a climate of extreme fear and repression.

The frequent detention and torture of students, dissidents, opposition figures, communists, reporters, or anyone perceived to be critical of the government was symptomatic of the Park presidency and the subsequent administration.

Domestically, the KCIA made itself the philanthropical arm of the government by being an avid supporter of the arts, promoter of tourism, and purveyor of national culture.

The KCIA is known to have raised funds through extortion and stock market manipulation, which were in turn used to bribe and cajole companies, individuals and even foreign governments, as happened during the Koreagate scandal in the United States in 1976.

[7] Legislation passed at the end of 1981 further redefined the ANSP's legally mandated functions to include the collection, compilation, and distribution of foreign and domestic information regarding public safety against communists and plots to overthrow the government.

Additionally, the ANSP, responding to widespread criticism of its alleged human rights violations, set up a "watchdog" office to supervise its domestic investigations and to prevent agents from abusing their powers while interrogating suspects.

[7] Aside from its controversial internal security mission, the ANSP also was known for its foreign intelligence gathering and analysis and for its investigation of offenses involving external subversion and military secrets.

[8] In the presidential election held in December 2012, NIS committed a serious crime by secretly helping Park Geun-hye's campaign, according to the Korean police investigation report.

Its current officially stated mission assigns the NIS responsibility for the: The election of Roh Moo-hyun to the South Korean presidency in 2003 brought more concerted efforts to reform the agency.

Roh appointed Ko Young-koo, a former human rights lawyer, to the position of director, expressing a desire to find "someone who will set the agency straight".

The anti-communist bureau of the agency was slated to be eliminated, and many domestic intelligence and surveillance activities were either abandoned or transferred to national police forces.

[32] The scandal ultimately led to the arrest of former National Intelligence Service director Lim Dong-won, under the accusation of 'violating laws on foreign exchange transactions'.

[35] In 2012, Park Geun-hye's presidential election was revealed to have been manipulated by members of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in order to ensure that a conservative candidate came into power.

Following the 2016 South Korean political scandal and corruption surrounding Park Geun-hye's presidential role, two former NIS chiefs were arrested in November 2017.

Nam Jae-joon and Lee Byung-kee were arrested for embezzlement and bribery, having illegally funded ₩4 billion won ($3.6 million) to Park and her presidential office.

As Park Geun-hye's predecessor, the Lee Myung-bak administration was under suspicion of involvement with the 2012 Public Opinion Manipulation scandal with the National Intelligence Service.

The primary goal of this activity is to provide the government with information to formulate inter-Korean strategies that both protect South Korea and lead towards future reunification.

The NIS also monitors North Korea's political, military, diplomatic, economic and social developments in order to assess their impact on inter-Korean relations and therefore assist in providing the government context to help create effective policy.

While protecting the South from North Korean aggression, the NIS also states that one of its main goals is to simultaneously preserve international relations in order to 'support [the] creation of a unified Korea under liberal democracy'.

In 2011, the NIS appeared to have no prior knowledge of the death of Kim Jong-il and has also failed to provide forewarning on Pyongyang's nuclear missile tests in the past.

In 2016, the accuracy of NIS intelligence was further brought into question after they were allegedly responsible for falsely reporting the death of North Korean army official Ri Yong-il, who was later found to be alive.

He theorised that in some cases this could also allow for North Korea to intentionally act deceptively in order to publicly discredit one of their main South Korean targets.

[47] In 2016, the South Korean government voted to reduce the role of the NIS in intelligence activities and pass the duty of investigating those with ties to North Korea to the national police service.