Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
2 officers under probe for data leak
'They posted information about mine blasts online'
By Jun Ji-hye
Two military officers and one staff sergeant are being investigated for allegedly leaking information about the movement of North Korean soldiers in the wake of the North’s landmine attack early last month, the Defense Security Command (DSC) said Tuesday.
They are a Marine Corps first lieutenant, an Air Force first lieutenant and an Army staff sergeant, whose names are being withheld.
The Marine Corps first lieutenant was caught taking a photo of the Army Tactical Command Information System (ATCIS) with his mobile phone and sending it to a civilian friend on Aug. 22. The photo was exposed to social networking sites after the friend posted it to an online community portal.
The photo showed that the South Korean military was on alert after a suspected North Korean surveillance drone appeared over a South Korean military outpost.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff later explained that flights of the unmanned aerial vehicles, which measure slightly longer than 3 meters, took place several times from Aug. 22 to 24, including just 30 minutes before the two Koreas began high-level talks on the evening of Aug. 22.
“The DSC is now questioning the Marine officer,” a military official said on the condition of anonymity, noting that the case is expected to be up for court-martial soon.
The DSC also questioned the Air Force first lieutenant for posting the information regarding the suspected North Korean drone on an online community on Aug. 22 after he learned of the information at the Air Force’s Master Control and Reporting Center (MCRC).
The Army staff sergeant, who belongs to a front-line unit, was also caught posting the content of the broadcast that aired in his barracks on Aug. 20. The content was the standby order in preparation for the North’s additional provocations. The broadcast aired after the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire across a western quarter of the inter-Korean border on that day.
“The Marine Corps first lieutenant is subject to judicial action as he exposed the ATCIS screen, which is confidential military information,” the official said. “The Air Force first lieutenant and the Army staff sergeant may face disciplinary action from their units as they exposed military information after converting it into text.”
Critics said soldiers’ revelation of military secrets is a growing problem with the development and generalization of SNS.
According to Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, the number of cases in which soldiers violated secrecy, has consistently increased for the past three years to 3,090 in 2014 from 2,470 in 2012 and 2,520 in 2013.
The Ministry of National Defense said that the development of social networking sites has threatened military security. Making efforts to respond to such threats, the ministry revised its guidelines on how soldiers can use such sites, it said.
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