Seoul court issues arrest warrant over spy leak case

SEOUL: South Korea’s 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 Defence Ministry said in a statement sent to AFP Wednesday, saying it could not provide specific details of the alleged crimes due to an ongoing investigation.

Seoul’s military said on the weekend it was investigating a case that local news media reported entailed a leak of sensitive documents handled by the Defense Intelligence Command.

Officials had since “detected signs” the leaked data may have reached the nuclear-armed North, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The incident came to light internally in June, MP Lee Sung-kwon, joint chief of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, said Tuesday.

“The individual has been excluded from duties and arrested,” Lee told reporters.

Lee added that the Korea Defence Intelligence Command had implemented additional security measures, including ordering “the immediate return of overseas dispatched personnel, banning agents from travelling, 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, according to Yonhap.

Last week, the United States, Britain and South Korea issued a joint warning on Thursday that North Korean hackers have conducted a global cyber “espionage campaign” to steal classified military secrets in an effort to advance its banned nuclear weapons programme.

In May, Seoul police said North Korean hackers stole sensitive data, including South Koreans’ individual financial records, from a court computer network over two years.