Man accused of spreading North Korean spyware to South Korean companies

Korea Times 2016 file photo.

By Jung Da-min, Park Si-soo

A South Korean businessman will stand trial on charges he sold spyware-embedded North Korean security software to public organizations, hospitals, telecom and power companies in the South.

The man, surnamed Kim, 46, was also charged with handing over the personal information of 6,000 South Koreans to the software's developers in the North.

Kim was arrested last month for alleged violation of the National Security Law and the prosecution recently took the case to the court. Kim claims his innocence, saying investigators “manipulated” evidence.

Kim's trial will soon begin at the Seoul Central District Court.

According to prosecutors, Kim imported facial-recognition technology-based security software from a North Korean company from the early 2000s. A Korean-Chinese, surnamed Yang, assisted the deal as a middleman. The deal itself was legal, which was done under the permission of South Korea's unification ministry.

Kim imported 313 units of the software between 2010 and June this year and sold them to major public and private organizations and companies here.

An investigation started after a research company detected malware posing a serious security threat in its operating system in March 2013. The investigation zeroed in on how the spyware got into the system. Last month authorities confirmed the connection between the malware and Kim's company.