By Kim Rahn
A civilian worker at the Defense Security Command has been leaking confidential military information to an arms dealer for several years in return for money, investigators said Sunday.
A joint government team investigating corruption in the defense industry said it arrested the worker, surnamed Byun, on charges of handing military secrets to Ilgwang Group Chairman Lee Kyu-tae.
Lee was earlier arrested for alleged corruption while making arms purchases for the state.
Byun allegedly leaked 141 documents from the command from November of 2006 to last December.
“The materials included top secrets about operations of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the leakage could have caused serious danger to the nation’s security if they had been offered to other nations such as North Korea,” an investigator said.
Some other secrets including personal information of top military officials, arms purchase plans and internal reports at the Ministry of National Defense and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) were also given to Lee.
In return for the information, Byun received 10 million won in 2008.
Byun’s alleged crime came to light after the probe team found a container full of military secrets at an open storage yard near Mount Dobong in northern Seoul in March, which Lee’s company concealed.
Earlier this month, investigators also arrested another civilian worker at the command who offered other internal DAPA reports and arms purchase information to Lee.
“We suspect there may be more workers involved in the information leakage. We’ll question the arrested employees more to find out if there are other corrupt ties between Lee and people in the military,” the investigator said.
Lee was arrested in March for allegedly pocketing 50 billion won for connecting a Turkish defense manufacturer to the Korean Air Force in a 130-billion-won arms deal in 2009.