Chinese national arrested for alleged attempt to buy military secrets
South Korean military authorities have arrested a Chinese suspect accused of attempting to obtain classified military information by persuading a South Korean soldier to leak it, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.
The Defense Counterintelligence Command is investigating the man after detaining him on suspicion of violating the Military Secrets Protection Act. A South Korean soldier, currently on active duty, has also been taken into custody for allegedly cooperating with him.
According to the ministry, the Chinese man used open-access, anonymous chat rooms on KakaoTalk to approach soldiers who were on active duty. In these chat rooms, the suspect acted like a fellow soldier and approached individuals to obtain military information, in exchange for money or other compensation.
The South Korean soldier currently in custody was stationed in Yanggu, Gangwon Province. He is accused of smuggling a spy camera and unauthorized mobile phones into his military unit and photographing sensitive intranet content — including operational plans for South Korea-US joint drills — and sending the material to the Chinese suspect on multiple occasions.
Both individuals were apprehended on Jeju Island, where the Chinese suspect had reportedly traveled to deliver compensation to the soldier.
Further details of the investigation will be disclosed due to security concerns, the ministry said.
However, it is unlikely that the suspects will be charged with espionage, as South Korea's National Security Act limits such charges to cases involving North Korea.
In a similar case in July last year, a civilian employee at the Defense Intelligence Command was arrested for leaking second-class military secrets — including the identities of South Korean undercover agents — to a Chinese operative in exchange for bribes.
However, he was not charged with espionage, as the case involved China rather than North Korea.
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