South Korea Arrests 2 Accused of Spying for North Korea

SEOUL — Two South Koreans have been arrested on expenses of stealing navy secrets and techniques on behalf of a suspected North Korean spy agent who paid them in cryptocurrency, the police mentioned on Thursday.

A 38-year-old government at a cyber-currency firm met the agent via a web-based cryptocurrency neighborhood six years in the past and has been paid $600,000 in cryptocurrency since February final 12 months to work for him, the South Korean nationwide police mentioned. Collectively, the chief and the agent tried to hack into the South Korean navy’s command communication system, however failed.

They succeeded, nonetheless, in recruiting a 29-year-old South Korean navy officer, who helped steal labeled navy information by taking footage with a smartphone, the police mentioned. The police didn’t present particulars in regards to the stolen information, however mentioned that the officer was paid about $38,000 in cryptocurrency by the agent.

The 2 South Koreans have been arrested earlier this month and now face prison expenses of breaking the nation’s Nationwide Safety Act. The South Korean police mentioned they might not arrest the agent, who was working from overseas, however mentioned that they believed he was a hacker working for the North Korean authorities.

South and North Korea have remained technically at warfare since 1950. For many years, the 2 Koreas have waged intelligence and counterespionage campaigns. Lately, the warfare has more and more shifted into our on-line world.

North Korea runs a military of hackers educated to disrupt enemy pc networks and steal money and delicate information. With its commerce crippled by each the pandemic and United Nations sanctions, North Korea has more and more relied on cyberattacks that focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain platforms, based on American and South Korean intelligence businesses.

On Wednesday, the U.S. cybersecurity agency Symantec mentioned {that a} North Korean-linked hacker group often known as Stonefly lately breached an engineering firm with navy ties.

“Just about the entire applied sciences it seems to be considering have navy in addition to civilian makes use of and a few may have purposes within the improvement of superior weaponry,” Symantec mentioned, describing the hacker group’s actions in a weblog put up.

​Earlier this month, america authorities blamed one other North Korean hacking group, often known as Lazarus, for a $620 million cryptocurrency heist.

Regardless of its financial difficulties, North Korea runs a vigorous nuclear weapons and missile improvement program. On Monday, North Korea held a navy parade the place its chief, Kim Jong-un, watched its newly developed missiles and vowed to spice up his nuclear arsenal “on the quickest potential pace.”