Hacking attempts this year targeting South Korea's foreign ministry and its diplomatic missions are expected to be triple the 2009 figure, the ministry said Tuesday.

Just in the first three months of this year, attempts to break into the websites of the foreign affairs establishments totaled 1,027, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

If the current pace continues, the total number of hacking attempts on the ministry and its overseas offices will exceed the 4,000 mark for all of 2013, nearly triple the figure registered in 2009 when the ministry began tracking related data.

The total number of cyberattack attempts stood at 1,309 in 2009 and has steadily grown every year to reach 1,941 in 2010, 2,686 in 2011 and 2,381 last year, according to the ministry.

South Korea's confidential diplomatic documents are safe from such attacks, however, the ministry said. Diplomats use a separate Internet channel to share secret documents, it said.

"The computer network for diplomatic affairs is managed exclusively, thus cyberattacks targeting the ministry Internet home page are not related to the separate channel," a ministry official said. (Yonhap News)