South Korean man sentenced to 5 years in prison for spying for NK

A South Korean man has been sentenced to five years in prison for spying for North Korea, officials announced on Saturday. The 43-year-old individual was found to have received instructions from a North Korean agent via Telegram in May-June of 2021 to gather information about anti-Pyongyang defectors from North Korea and their activities.

During this period, the man stole approximately 660 million won ($479,346) worth of virtual currency from the North Korean agent as payment for managing cryptocurrency investments. Subsequently, the man approached the head of a North Korean defector group, offering to financially support the organization by creating a virtual currency wallet and sharing its address with the North Korean agent.

The agent subsequently transferred 1 million won worth of Bitcoin as a donation, which the man used to receive videos and photos of the group distributing anti-Pyongyang leaflets in return. Furthermore, the man was directed by the agent to collect personal information about seven active-duty military officers, including their units and resident registration numbers, among other details.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.