Two South Koreans arrested for stealing military secrets

SEOUL — Two South Koreans have been arrested on charges of stealing military secrets on behalf of a suspected North Korean spy who paid them in virtual currency, the police said on Thursday.

A 38-year-old executive at a cyber-currency company met the agent through an online criptocurrency community six years ago and has been paid $600,000 since February last year to work for him, the South Korean national police said. The executive and the agent tried to hack into the South Korean military's command communication system, but failed.

They succeeded in recruiting a 29-year-old South Korean military officer who helped steal classified military data by taking pictures with a phone, the police said. The police did not provide any details about the stolen data, but said the officer was paid about $38,000 in cryptocurrencies by the agent.

Two South Koreans were arrested earlier this month and are now facing criminal charges of breaking the country's National Security Act. The South Korean police said they could not arrest the agent, who was operating from abroad, but they said he believed he was a hacker working for the North Korean government.