서강대학교

초록/요약

On 26 March 2010, an explosion occurred near the rear of the ROK Ship Cheonan, causing the ship to break in two. Some media said this incident was a result of intelligence failure. Before this attack, there are other intelligence failures of the same kind. Historically, intelligence failure is not rare Events. Thus, the purpose of this research is 1) to correct the concept of intelligence failure, 2) to analyze the major factors of intelligence failures, 3) to propose countermeasures on them. One of these examples is the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong in 2002. It is the actual Korea’s typical case of intelligence failure. It was caused by multiple factors such as lack of intelligence, analyst’s cognitive error, and military organizational culture. And its background was the Sunshine Policy. Above all, the main cause for intelligence failure was the information distortion by the intent or order of the Defense Minister to delete or shrink information. In conclusion, the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong implies many things. First, the analysis of intelligence agency shall maintain its objectivity. In other words, it shall work with the policy, but shall not be swayed by it. Second, there must be an institutional environment for analysts to investigate accurately and objectively. Lastly, the intelligence failure was caused by multiple factors in the process of information cycle. Therefore, the intelligence agency shall have the professional pride and faithfully carry out its mission, and must put efforts to produce objective and accurate analytical reports that are not to please the superiors.