Man Sentenced to 5 Yrs. for Spying for N. Korean Agent

A South Korean man in his 40s has been sentenced to five years in prison for spying for North Korea. According to The Korea Times and Yonhap News, the 43-year-old man received an order from a North Korean agent via the messaging app Telegram in May-June 2021 to collect information about anti-Pyongyang defectors and their activities.

The man was found to have taken about 660 million won ($479,346) worth of virtual currency from the North Korean agent to fund cryptocurrency investments. He approached the head of a North Korean defector group, offering to sponsor the organization, and arranged for the agent to transfer 1 million won worth of Bitcoin as a donation. In return, the man received videos and photos of the group sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets.

The man was also instructed to collect personal information of seven active-duty military officers, including their units and resident registration numbers. KBS World Radio reported that the Seoul Central District Court handed down the sentence, while Yonhap News added that the man had hired a private investigation agency to gather information about one of the officers.

Brief written by urgent.news from KBS World Radio, The Korea Times, Yonhap News — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.