South Korean officer charged with leaking secrets to China

SEOUL, July 10 (UPI) -- A South Korean military officer has been charged with leaking naval secrets to a Chinese state agent but there is no circumstantial evidence of North Korean involvement, Seoul said Friday.

The officer, a major in South Korea's Defense Security Command, had been taken into custody and charged with violating military security laws, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

Seoul's military prosecutor charged the major with providing classified information on South Korean navy destroyers between June 2013 and February 2015. A total of 26 documents were transmitted to a Chinese spy.

The final document transmitted to China was a 20-page file that included information on South Korean naval ships, the activities of South Korea's neighbors and an overview of Seoul's military situation.

The South Korean suspect reportedly copied the documents by hand, took photos, and then moved the images to a memory card that was delivered to China.

Military investigations have revealed the Chinese agent requested documents on Korea's KAMD missile defense system, but it was unclear whether the South Korean provider had handed that information to Chinese agents.

No information about the THAAD missile defense system was included in the stolen files.

The South Korean officer's espionage activities began after 2010, when he met a Chinese national who Seoul said is a suspected spy, South Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun reported.

The Chinese man's identity, however, ultimately could not be confirmed.

The military officer charged with the violations was studying in China when he became friends with the Chinese national who took active steps to draw him into his sphere of influence.

The agent helped the officer resolve a bar brawl in China, and even provided security detail during his China travels.