Korea’s National Intelligence Service on Friday repeated its denial of allegations that it had bugged civilians using malware purchased from an Italian surveillance vendor, and offered to reveal relevant documents to the parliament.

“The program that we were alleged to have used to hack the personal devices of citizens here would have resulted in us hacking at most 20 individuals,” the NIS said in a press release. “It is impossible to conduct a surveillance operation on citizens with this capacity.”

“The NIS plans to show the members of the (parliamentary) Intelligence Committee the usage records of (the software). While (the information) is confidential, we plan to do so as an extraordinary step to quell the ongoing controversy,” the NIS added.

As public distrust escalated upon reports of the hacking allegations, the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy has set up a special probe committee, calling the case an unprecedented hacking scandal.

The NIS went on to highlight that their actions were for the sake of national security and that such an“irresponsible” debate was destroying “our own security.”

Earlier on Friday, the two main political parties said they would conduct a bipartisan inspection into the agency.

“The field inspection should be carried out before the end of this month,” Lee Chul-woo of the ruling Saenuri Party told reporters, adding that senior officials from the Saenuri Party and the NPAD would meet Monday to work out details.

The decision came three days after the National Intelligence Service acknowledged in a closed-door briefing that it had purchased RCS software, referring to Remote Control System technology, but denied using it to monitor the country’s people.

The software program can be used to hack data by installing spyware, allowing hackers to manipulate and track smartphones and computers.

The NIS said it bought the hacking program from Milan-based Hacking Team in 2012, though it said it did not use the software for the surveillance of South Korean citizens. The agency noted that it has used most of its programs for the purpose of strengthening cyberwarfare capabilities against Pyongyang.

Another ruling party official said 18 out of 20 hacking programs were used to try to glean intelligence on North Korea and the two others for research purposes. The official asked not to be identified, citing the issue’s sensitivity.

By Jeong Hunny and news reports (hj257@heraldcorp.com)