The main opposition Democratic United Party on Tuesday demanded an apology from President Park Geun-hye over a scandal surrounding the national spy agency’s alleged attempt to influence last year’s presidential race.

The scandal centers on suspicions that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) ordered some of its employees to post illegal political comments on the Internet in a bid to affect public opinion ahead of the December election. Some of the comments were critical of then DUP presidential candidate Moon Jae-in.

The scandal broke just days before the election and quickly turned into a last-minute campaign issue for the ruling Saenuri Party and the DUP.

Park, then the ruling party presidential candidate, accused the opposition of violating the human rights of a female NIS employee, who locked herself in her apartment for days when large numbers of reporters, opposition party officials and police camped outside her home after she emerged as a suspect.

Following a four-month-long probe, police said last week that two NIS employees, including the female agent, were found to have posted the comments online. Prosecutors are now looking into the case.

“President Park Geun-hye should apologize for defending the NIS’s illegal intervention in the presidential election and covering up the truth by citing violations of the female NIS agent’s human rights,” the DUP said in a resolution adopted during a general meeting of its lawmakers earlier in the day.

“This is a very important issue related to President Park Geun-hye’s integrity,” DUP interim chief Moon Hee-sang said during the meeting. “President Park and the Saenuri Party should go all out to cooperate.” (Yonhap News)