Presidential security adviser's email account hacked

By Yi Whan-woo

Moon Chung-in

Yun Kun-young

An email account belonging to Moon Chung-in, one of President Moon Jae-in's most trusted mentors on foreign policy and security affairs, is believed to have been hacked, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Friday.

This is the latest in a series of possible hacking cases, in which emails intended to create a rift in the alliance between South Korea and the United States have been sent out using accounts belonging to a wide range of security officials and experts.

Among the victims were presidential secretary for state affairs Yun Kun-young, a National Security Office (NSO) staff member handling cyber data, a Ministry of Unification official, and a director of an overseas office at the Korea Foundation (KF), which operates under the wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The names of the three latter victims have not been disclosed.

The suspected email hacking began as early as January, fueling concerns that Cheong Wa Dae and other national security-related ministries were taking countermeasures “too late.”

Cheong Wa De only asked the National Police Agency to look into the cases after the vernacular The Asia Business Daily newspaper published a story, Nov. 27, about the growing U.S. mistrust of South Korea.

The story was based on a fake document sent to the newspaper from a suspected hacker using an email address belonging to the NSO staff member.

In the case of Moon, a distinguished professor at Yonsei University and special presidential adviser for unification, security and foreign affairs, someone impersonating him sent an email to a member of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.

It was sent shortly after the first summit between President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the truce village of Panmunejom, April 27.

The email was attached with a purported classified evaluation report about the April 27 summit. The recipient, whose name was not disclosed, called Moon to confirm the email because there were “convincing reasons to suspect who the author really was.”

“And it was found out that Moon never sent the mail with such an attached file,” Cheong Wa Dae said.

The presidential office explained it only disclosed the case to the public this week because there have been so many cases in which efalse mails were sent using security officials' accounts.

“And we've decided to deal with the cases firmly because a growing number of emails appear to be aimed at creating a rift in the Seoul-Washington alliance and stealing confidential information on North Korea policy.

At the beginning of the year, someone who pretended to be secretary Yun allegedly attempted to steal information on North Korea policy from multiple ministry officials by using Yun's private email address and asking them to hand over relevant documents

Cheong Wa Dae sought to track down the suspect but failed to do so because the IP address used when writing the emails was overseas.