Businessmen arrested for paying N. Korea in return for facial recognition program

Two South Korean businessmen have been arrested and indicted on charges of paying North Korea hundreds of millions of won in exchange for a computer software program and handing over military secrets to the communist nation, officials said Wednesday.

The owner of a technology firm and a senior executive at the firm were accused of holding an unauthorized meeting with North Koreans in 2007 and receiving a facial recognition program. They allegedly gave the North about 500 million won (US$444,422) and unspecified military secrets in return, according to the prosecution.

(123RF)

The firm pretended to have developed the program on its own and sold it, officials at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors‘

Office said. The owner, surnamed Kim, was a former member of a student activist group accused of sympathizing with the North, they said.

The two were charged with violating the National Security Law by holding unauthorized contact with North Koreans and providing support to the country, officials said.

Kim has claimed that police fabricated evidence when seeking an arrest warrant for him. (Yonhap)