Jakarta (B2B) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has directed Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa to ask Singapore and South Korea to explain reports about their alleged involvement in wiretapping activities by Australia and the United States.

"In connection with reports that two countries, Singapore, which is our neighbour, close friend and common ASEAN member, and South Korea, also one of Indonesias close friends, have helped Australia and the United States in tapping undersea cable communication networks in Asia and other regions, I have instructed our foreign minister to ask the two nations ambassadors for explanations, even though Indonesia is not explicitly mentioned," he said at his office here on Tuesday evening.

He made the statement after holding a cabinet meeting to discuss future relations between Indonesia and Australia after receiving a response from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the allegations that Australian intelligence agencies tapped the phones of Indonesian officials.

President Yudhoyono underlined the importance of formulating a protocol and a code of ethics to regulate future relations between the two countries.

He said he would assign Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa or a special envoy to discuss highly sensitive issues in the relations between the two countries after the wiretapping allegations.

He said he hoped the two countries would implement the protocol and code of ethics after they are signed by the heads of government on both sides.

According to documents leaked by former US National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden and quoted by Australian media, Singapores military intelligence helped American, British and Australian intelligence agencies to collect data through main undersea cable communication networks that connect more than 30 countries, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Britain and France.

The media reports also mentioned the role played by the South Korean intelligence agency in the wiretapping of communication networks that run through Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

SEA-ME-WE-3 Submarine Cable
Previously reported, according to documents leaked by former US National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden and quoted by Australian media, Singapores military intelligence helped American, British and Australian intelligence agencies to collect data through main undersea cable communication networks that connect more than 30 countries, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Britain and France.

The media reports also mentioned the role played by the South Korean intelligence agency in the wiretapping of communication networks that run through Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

Australia and South Korea are playing key roles helping the United States and Australia tap undersea telecommunications links across Asia, according to top secret documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. New details have also been revealed about the involvement of Australia and New Zealand in the interception of global satellite communications.

A top secret United States National Security Agency map shows that the US and its “Five Eyes” intelligence partners tap high speed fibre optic cables at 20 locations worldwide. The interception operation involves cooperation with local governments and telecommunications companies or else through “covert, clandestine” operations.

The undersea cable interception operations are part of a global web that in the words of another leaked NSA planning document enables the “Five Eyes” partners – the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - to trace “anyone, anywhere, anytime” in what is described as “the golden age” signals intelligence.

The NSA map, published by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad overnight, shows that the United States maintains a stranglehold on trans-Pacific communications channels with interception facilities on the West coast of the United States and at Hawaii and Guam, tapping all cable traffic across the Pacific Ocean as well as links between Australia and Japan.

Australian intelligence expert, Australian National University Professor Des Ball has described Singapore´s signal´s intelligence capability as “probably the most advanced” in South East Asia, having first been developed in cooperation with Australia in the mid-1970s and subsequently leveraging Singapore´s position as a regional telecommunications hub.

Indonesia and Malaysia have been key targets for Australian and Singaporean intelligence collaboration since the 1970s. Much of Indonesia´s telecommunications and Internet traffic is routed through Singapore.

The leaked NSA map also shows South Korea is another key interception point with cable landings at Pusan providing access to the external communications of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

South Korea´s National Intelligence Service has long been a close collaborator with the US Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA, as well as the Australian intelligence agencies. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation recently engaged in legal action in an unsuccessful effort to prevent publication of details of South Korean espionage in Australia. ASIO Director-General David Irvine told the Federal Court that Australian and South Korean intelligence agencies had been cooperating for “over 30 years” and that any public disclose of NIS activities would be “detrimental” to Australia´s national security.