The head of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Monday that he will push to legislate a ban on the spy agency's involvement in domestic politics.

NIS Director Park Jie-won made the remark during a press briefing on the government's plans to reform the NIS, prosecution and police.

"(We) will make it clear legally that the NIS will never get involved in domestic politics under any circumstances," Park told reporters. He was appointed as head of the spy agency in July.

Currently, a reform bill on the NIS' operation is pending in the National Assembly, aiming at restricting the spy agency's involvement in domestic politics and transferring its investigative authority on espionage cases to other investigative agencies.

The NIS has been frequently under strong criticism for meddling in domestic politics by taking advantage of its intelligence collecting capacity and favoring ruling governments.

Park said that he will transfer the NIS' authority in investigating espionage cases without any delay and realign his organization in a way not to cause any security vacuum for the nation in the process. (Yonhap)