▲ Supreme Court of Korea
A prison sentence has been finalized for an Army soldier indicted on charges of leaking military secrets, including materials on South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, to a Chinese intelligence organization.
According to legal circles on September 18, the Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) finalized the appellate ruling that sentenced an individual identified as A, who was prosecuted for aiding the enemy, leaking military secrets, accepting bribes after unlawful acts, and violating the Information and Communications Network Act, to four years in prison, a fine of 20 million won, and the forfeiture of 19.07 million won last month.
A, who was a corporal in the Army at the time, communicated with an unidentified Chinese national whom he met via social media and met him in Beijing, China, in August 2024.
A accepted a proposal to provide non-public military data from the person, who claimed to be affiliated with Chinese intelligence.
From around that time until February of the following year, A was brought to trial on charges of leaking military secrets—such as South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, United Nations Command-related materials, and South Korean military independent training data—a total of seven times in exchange for approximately 17.26 million won (aiding the enemy, leaking military secrets, accepting bribes after unlawful acts).
Investigations showed that A complained to the counterpart about the difficulty of photographing military secrets using an iPhone, and subsequently received a wrist-watch-type camera to film military secrets.
A was sentenced to five years in prison in the first trial held at a military court.
The Seoul High Court sentenced A to four years in prison, a fine of 20 million won, and the forfeiture of 1.90.7 million won in the second trial.
A claimed that there was no intent to aid the enemy, but this was not accepted.
The appellate court stated, "Although there is no direct evidence that the Chinese person who recruited and instructed the defendant was a member of a Chinese intelligence organization, based on the established facts, it has been proven that the defendant leaked military secrets to a Chinese intelligence organization through an unidentified person."
The court also pointed out, "As an active-duty soldier who received security education and was well aware that military secrets must not be leaked to the outside, the defendant committed a grave crime," adding, "The nature of the crime is severe as it was carried out in an organized and meticulous manner."
A was also accused of providing money to a sex worker through a prostitution brokerage agency (violating the Act on the Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic), but was acquitted of this charge on the grounds that the related evidence was a separate criminal offense lacking objective relevance to the military secrets-related charges listed in the search warrant.
The Supreme Court also deemed that there were no errors in the lower court's judgment and dismissed the appeal.
(Photo provided by Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)
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