[Herald DB]
[Herald DB]

An army soldier convicted of leaking military secrets, including materials related to South Korea-US joint exercises, to a Chinese intelligence organization has had his prison sentence confirmed.

The Supreme Court's Second Division, presided over by Justice Park Young-jae, last month upheld a lower court ruling sentencing the defendant, identified only as A, to four years in prison, a fine of 20 million won ($14,600) and a surcharge of 19.07 million won on charges including general treason, military secret disclosure, bribery in connection with misconduct, and violations of the Information and Communications Network Act, Yonhap reported.

A, who held the rank of army sergeant, had been in contact with an unidentified Chinese national he met through SNS.

He traveled to Beijing in August 2024 to meet the person.

The Chinese national, who claimed to work for a Chinese intelligence agency, proposed that A hand over classified military materials, and A agreed.

From around that time through February of the following year, A was tried on charges of leaking military secrets — including materials on South Korea-US combined exercises, UN Command-related documents and South Korean military-only training data — on seven occasions in exchange for a total of 17.26 million won.

Investigators found that A had complained to his contact about the difficulty of photographing classified materials with an iPhone. He then received a wristwatch-style hidden camera and used it to photograph the secrets.

A military court sentenced A to five years in prison at the first trial. The Seoul High Court reduced the sentence to four years in prison, a fine of 20 million won and a surcharge of 19.07 million won at the second trial. A argued he had no intent to commit treason, but the court rejected the claim.

"There is no direct evidence that the Chinese national who recruited the defendant and issued instructions was a member of a Chinese intelligence organization," the appellate court said, "but based on the established facts, it has been proven that the defendant leaked military secrets to a Chinese intelligence organization through the unidentified individual."

The court added that A "was an active-duty soldier who had received security training and was well aware that military secrets must not be disclosed to outside parties, yet committed the crimes anyway, making his culpability grave." It further said "the crimes were carried out in an organized and meticulous manner, making their nature all the more serious."

Former military civilian employee's 20-year sentence for leaking secrets to China confirmed in January

Earlier, in January, a civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Command who leaked classified military information — including details on "black agents," intelligence operatives who conceal their identities — to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative had a 20-year prison sentence confirmed.

The Supreme Court's Third Division, presided over by Justice Lee Heung-gu, upheld a lower court ruling sentencing Cheon, a 51-year-old former civilian military employee, to 20 years in prison, a fine of 1 billion won ($731,000) and a surcharge of 162.05 million won on charges including general treason under the Military Criminal Act, Yonhap reported at the time.

Cheon was indicted and detained in August 2024 on charges of general treason under the Military Criminal Act after being recruited by a suspected Chinese intelligence operative around 2017 and leaking military secrets on multiple occasions in exchange for money starting in 2019. Additional charges were applied under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes for bribery and under the Military Secrets Protection Act.

The Supreme Court dismissed Cheon's appeal, saying it could not find the lower court's sentence of 20 years in prison and other penalties to be "grossly unreasonable" given the defendant's age, conduct, circumstances, motive, means and consequences of the crimes, and post-offense behavior.


yul@heraldcorp.com