South Korean soldier sentenced to five years in prison for providing military secrets to Chinese intelligence agency

A South Korean soldier on trial for leaking military secrets related to U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises to a Chinese military intelligence agency has been sentenced to a heavy prison term.
On the 11th, the 3rd Regional Military Court (court) announced that he had been convicted of general anti-national activities, leaking military secrets, accepting bribes after committing fraud,
Mr. A, who was indicted on charges including violating the Information and Communications Network Act and the Sex Trafficking Punishment Act, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay a surcharge of over 18 million won (approximately 1.9 million yen).
According to the indictment, Sergeant A went to Beijing, China during his vacation in August last year, and made contact with members of the Chinese intelligence agency and became a spy.
A promised to pass on military secrets through a smartphone IP forwarding program. After returning to his unit, A participated in the U.S.-ROK joint exercise "Ulchi Freedom Shield" (UFS).
The leaked documents included the names and troop strength of US military bases in South Korea, which were created by the US military and transmitted to the South Korean military.
The documents included information such as reinforcement plans and the locations of targets that could be used for precision strikes in the event of an emergency. In addition, the documents also included personal information such as the affiliation, rank, name, and contact details of personnel in charge of the US-ROK joint exercise.
It was also revealed that Mr. A received over 18 million won on seven occasions in exchange for handing over military secrets, including a catalog of military manuals from the US-ROK Combined Forces Command.
Mr. A was born in China in 2003 to a Korean father and a Chinese mother, and spent most of his time in Beijing, China, except for about five months in Korea in 2008.
Mr. A lived with his maternal grandparents, and it was discovered that his maternal grandfather was a former officer in the Chinese Rocket Force who retired in 2005.
Mr. A was handed over to trial in custody and denied the charges, but his denial was not accepted by the court.
The court said, "Active duty soldiers who are performing their national defense duties are instead joining forces that threaten the security of the Republic of Korea.
"In particular, he traveled to China to meet with the organization's members three times and received a considerable amount of money in return for his acts of aiding the enemy.
The nature of his crime is extremely serious in that he carried out the crime in an organized and meticulous manner, including bringing equipment into the barracks without permission to make the crime easier." "However, he has no prior criminal history and has admitted his mistake and is remorseful.
The sentence was decided taking into consideration the points that were omitted."