The South Korean military has issued an arrest warrant for an intelligence service employee accused of leaking highly sensitive information, a case that reportedly involves the outing of agents spying on the North.
A military court issued the warrant “on charges of leaking military secrets”, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse yesterday, saying it could not provide specific details of the alleged crimes due to an ongoing investigation.
Seoul’s military at the weekend said it was investigating a case that local news media reported entailed a leak of sensitive documents handled by the South Korean Defense Intelligence Command.
Photo: AP
Officials had since “detected signs” the leaked data might have reached the nuclear-armed North, Yonhap news agency reported.
The incident came to light internally in June, South Korean Legislator Lee Sung-kwon, joint chief of the South Korean National Assembly’s intelligence committee, said on Tuesday.
“The individual has been excluded from their duties and arrested,” Lee told reporters.
Lee added that the South Korean Defense Intelligence Command had implemented additional security measures, including ordering “the immediate return of overseas dispatched personnel, banning agents from traveling, and a detailed inspection of the system.”
The official is suspected of leaking the information via a laptop, but has reportedly claimed the device was hacked, South Korean media reported.
The committee said it “definitely was not a hack.”
The leaked information reportedly included information about South Korean agents posing as diplomats overseas, as well as undercover agents, Yonhap said.
Last week, the US, UK and South Korea issued a joint warning that North Korean hackers have conducted a global cyberespionage campaign to steal classified military secrets in an effort to advance its banned nuclear weapons program.
In May, Seoul police said North Korean hackers stole sensitive data, including South Koreans’ individual financial records, from a court computer network for more than two years.
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