By Park Si-soo
Staff reporter
The government has intensified security at government buildings and raised the alert of possible cyber attacks after confirming North Korea was behind the sinking of the warship Cheonan.
It also raised the alert level at all Korean embassies with regard to any possible acts of terrorism by the North by one notch. Visitors to countries with diplomatic ties to Pyongyang were asked to proceed with due caution.
"Civilians' admission to government buildings and other state facilities will be restricted. Those who must meet government officials will be able to meet them at a room set up separately by each organization," the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said in a press release Friday. "If their entry into the building is deemed necessary, security guards will accompany them until they leave."
The move came amid fears that the North may take retaliatory action against the South following the government's accusation, which is backed by the United States, Japan, and many European countries.
The tightening of security at government buildings underscores how seriously the government is taking the situation given no state building has been the target of terror attack before.
The ministry also ordered other government agencies to pay extra attention to "unusual" moves on their Web sites and data servers.
"We have raised the alert level for cyber attacks by one notch and are monitoring around the clock," the ministry said.
The monitoring will continue in cooperation with the National Intelligence Agency, Korea Internet Security Center, police and AhnLab, the country's largest Internet security firm, it said.
In July last year, key government and portal sites here were knocked out from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber attacks. The mastermind of the unprecedented attacks was presumably North Korea.
To deal with other emergency situations over the weekend, the ministry said, all public officials were ordered to stay alert.
"This will continue until the situation returns to normal," a ministry official said.
Seoul is looking to take the Cheonan disaster to the United Nations Security Council.
The North retorted to the accusation that it had nothing to do with the incident and warned of a "full-scale war" if any new sanctions were imposed.