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A military court has issued a warrant to arrest an official at the military's intelligence command for allegedly leaking information of South Korean espionage agents operating overseas, the defense ministry said Tuesday.
The civilian official at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command, whose identity is withheld, is suspected of handing over personal information of so-called black agents to a Chinese national of Korean descent.
Black agents refer to intelligence officials conducting undercover espionage activities overseas against North Korea with their identities in disguise.
Military authorities are believed to have detected signs that the leaked intelligence might have been handed over to North Korea. There is a possibility that the Chinese national could be an informant for North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, the country's intelligence agency.
Classified data stored at internal computers at the intelligence command was transferred to the official's personal laptop, and ultimately was found to be leaked to a third party.
The official denied the alleged leak of military intelligence, claiming that his laptop was hacked.
The intelligence command became aware of the alleged leaking around June after being informed of the case by a related intelligence agency, two lawmakers quoted the command as saying following a closed-door meeting at the National Assembly.
Reps. Lee Seong-kweun of the ruling People Power Party and Park Sun-won of the main opposition Democratic Party made the disclosure, through which the command appears to refute the suspected official's claim that the leak is the result of hacking.
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