The personal information of nearly 1,000 North Korean defectors who fled across the border with South Korea has been leaked by hackers.
South Korea's Unification Ministry said it discovered last week that the names, dates of birth and addresses of 997 defectors had been stolen from a resettlement agency database via a computer infected with malware.
The organization in the southern city of Gumi, called the Hana center, is among 25 institutes run by the ministry across the country to help about 32,000 innocents adapt to life in the wealthier democratic South, providing jobs, medical and legal support.
“The malware was installed via an email sent from an internal address,” a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, referring to an email account belonging to the Hana center.
The defectors, most of whom risked their lives to escape poverty and political oppression, are a disgrace to North Korea. State media often denounces them as “human straw” and accuses South Korean spies of kidnapping some of them.
The Ministry spokesman declined to say whether North Korea was believed to be behind the chaos or what the motive was, saying simply that a police investigation had been launched to determine who did it.
North Korean hackers have been accused in the past of cyberattacks on South Korean government agencies and businesses.
North Korea last year stole documents from the South's Defense Ministry, while a cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy after a North-linked cyberattack. North Korean state media has denied those cyberattacks.
The latest data breach comes at a strange time for the two Koreas, which have improved relations after years of confrontation.
The Unification Ministry said it notified the defectors and there were no reports of negative impacts from the data breach.
“We regret that this happened and are making efforts to prevent its recurrence,” the Ministry spokesman said.
Several defectors, including one who became a South Korean television celebrity, have disappeared in recent years only to later appear in North Korean state media, criticizing South Korea and the fate of the defectors.
