More military exercise details leaked

The Ministry of National Defense was in damage control mode yesterday after discovering that China had gained more data than originally thought on this year's main military exercises.

Vice Minister of National Defense Ko Cheng-heng (柯承亨) confirmed that more classified information on the "Han Kuang" (Han Glory) exercise had been leaked.

Ko said he had read the data downloaded from the Internet and that "parts of it are accurate."

He said an investigation into the leak was underway and that the personnel responsible would be severely punished.

"The leaked information downloaded from the Internet contained accurate lists of the names and troops which would participate in the exercise, but the rest was inaccurate," Ko said.

Ko talked with reporters after briefing the legislature's National Defense Committee yesterday morning about a project to use military personnel to help dredge dams or rivers.

He said the new leak could be another case of officers taking their laptops home to do more work after hours and the classified information was inadvertently leaked.

The latest incident is the fourth time this year that information about the 23rd Han Kuang exercise was allegedly leaked.

Three weeks ago, an officer working at the National Defense University was accused of leaking classified information after he took his laptop home and the computer was hacked by an unidentified Chinese hacker and confidential information was stolen. The officer was one of the staff members responsible for programming the Han Kuang exercise.

The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported the latest alleged leak yesterday. The newspaper said information about the Han Kuang exercise could be easily located and downloaded from "Foxy," an information sharing platform.

The information included details of the exercise, names of military personnel, troop information, locations, dates and times.

The information said the exercise would be conducted from May 16 to May 18, while rehearsals would be held on May 9 and May 10. Details included the report that the Air Force would land a fighter loaded with AIM-120 missiles on the Huatan (花壇) emergency runway section of the Chungshan Freeway in Changhua County.

Meanwhile, Chiu Kuo-cheng, deputy chief of the general staff for operations and planning, has said the exercise would be based on a simulated scenario regarding the cross-strait military situation in 2010. In that scenario, Taiwan has to defend itself against a Chinese invasion launched after Taipei refuses to participate in unification talks, he said.

Taiwan's military capability would be the same as at present because of a lack of progress in arms procurement, he said.

Full-scale maneuvers would be held in Penghu, Hualien, Ilan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Changhua and Pingtung and some would be open to the public. Computerized war game simulations would be held over five consecutive days at all command centers, Chiu said.