Did Presidential Delegation's Personal Data Leak While Being Sent to Belgium?

[Anchor]

Authorities have launched a full-scale investigation into the leak of personal information belonging to the presidential delegation, including President Lee Jae-myung and First Lady Kim Hye-kyung. SBS reporting has confirmed that authorities suspect the file containing the personal information was leaked in the process of being transmitted from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Belgian authorities, and are currently tracking the breach.

Reporter Kang Min-u has the exclusive report.

[Reporter]

The personal information leak occurred after a file regarding the presidential delegation was uploaded to a paid website that inspects files for malware.

The file contained the dates of birth, passport numbers, and other personal details of 168 passengers aboard Air Force One, including President Lee Jae-myung, First Lady Kim Hye-kyung, and senior government officials.

The document was prepared to facilitate immigration entry procedures for personnel traveling from Seoul to Brussels, Belgium, aboard Air Force One during a European tour for the Group of Seven (G7) summit in June.

According to SBS reporting, the South Korean government believes that on June 1, the file prepared by the Protocol Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sent to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to Belgium and the European Union via an internal network and other channels, and was subsequently transmitted to the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the internet.

The file was uploaded to the website just a day later, on June 2.

Believing that a problem occurred along this distribution channel, the government is focusing its efforts on identifying the exact point of the leak.

[Park Doo-soon / Spokesperson, Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "As soon as we confirmed the leak, we requested an investigation and inquiry from relevant agencies, and we are currently conducting an investigation in cooperation with related agencies, including the National Police Agency, to determine the circumstances of the leak."]

The presidential office held an emergency meeting on the morning of Tuesday (November 3), presided over by Chief Presidential Secretary Lim Kwang-hyun, to conduct a full review of the security management system for presidential overseas trips and discuss countermeasures.

Procedures have begun to reissue passports for the presidential couple, government officials, and journalists whose personal information was compromised, and police have transitioned the internal inquiry into a formal criminal investigation.

While no additional signs of leakage have been detected so far, criticism appears unavoidable over the fact that authorities remained unaware of the breach for more than five months until the media began reporting on it.

(Video by Jeong Sang-bo and Yoon Hyeong | Video Editing by Jang Hyeon-gi | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.