Prosecutor and politician; Director of the National Intelligence Service and lawmaker
| Life | 1941 ~ 2015 |
| Era | 현대 (대한민국) |
| Clan | 영월 신씨 |
Shin Geon (辛建, 1941–2015) was a South Korean prosecutor and politician of the Yeongwol Shin clan; his pen name was Cheongsa. He was born on 12 February 1941 in Jeonju, North Jeolla (Wikipedia also categorizes him as a native of Wanju). He attended Jeonbuk Middle School and Jeonju High School, graduated from Seoul National University's College of Law in 1963, and earned a master of laws at Washington State University in 1979.
After serving as a navy legal officer and leaving as a captain in 1969, he passed the 16th higher judicial examination and became a prosecutor, serving in Busan, Seoul and the Ministry of Justice and heading the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Central Investigation Department. He was later first deputy chief of the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office, head of planning and of corrections at the Ministry of Justice, and chief prosecutor in Gwangju, and he served as Vice Minister of Justice from March to May 1993.
He was legal adviser to President-elect Kim Dae-jung in 1997–98, then first and second deputy director of the Agency for National Security Planning and, in 1999, second deputy director of the National Intelligence Service. From March 2001 to April 2003 he was Director of the NIS, then returned to private practice. In 2005 he was arrested on charges of condoning illegal wiretapping by NIS staff and was released on bail in 2006.
In an April 2009 by-election he won Jeonju Wansan A as an independent with 50.38 percent of the vote, rejoining the Democratic Party in 2010 and serving on the National Policy Committee. In 2010 he was the first to raise in the National Assembly the illegal surveillance of civilians by the Prime Minister's Office ethics unit. He lost the same seat in 2012. A Catholic, he died of lung cancer in Seoul on 24 November 2015.