SEOUL — South Korean police have launched a preliminary investigation into the online leak of personal information belonging to 168 people who travelled aboard the presidential aircraft in June, including President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hea Kyung, the Korean National Police Agency said on Tuesday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
The Foreign Ministry sent an official letter requesting an investigation on Monday evening, and police opened the preliminary inquiry after the letter was formally received on Tuesday morning, the agency said. The case is expected to move to a formal investigation once initial procedures are complete.
At the centre of the case is a file titled "Passenger List (Republic of Korea-Belgium)", posted on June 2 on VirusTotal, a paid security-related website used to scan files and web addresses for malware — about a week before Lee departed for Brussels on June 9 for summits with Belgium and the European Union, on a tour that also took in Italy and France, including a Group of Seven summit.
The file contained the Korean and English names, affiliations, job titles, dates of birth, passport numbers and passport issue and expiry dates of everyone on the list: the president and first lady; Kim Yong-beom, then presidential chief of staff for policy; National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac; Deputy Prime Minister and Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon; Foreign Minister Cho Hyun; Climate, Energy and Environment Minister Kim Sung-whan; presidential office and Foreign Ministry staff; Presidential Security Service agents; and journalists covering the presidential office.
The file stayed accessible for about five months, until access was blocked. Because paying members and antivirus companies could download files uploaded to the site, the exposure raised concerns that even the identities of the security agents who protect the president at close range were available outside government. Police suspect the passenger list was uploaded to the platform in the process of being scanned for malicious code.
Emergency meeting at the presidential office
The presidential office held an emergency meeting on Tuesday morning, chaired by Presidential Chief of Staff Lim Kwang-hyun. "The leak of personal information belonging to the presidential delegation is a serious matter that can by no means be taken lightly," Lim said, according to a written briefing by senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung. He called for a thorough investigation into how the leak occurred, the scope of the exposure and whether any actual damage resulted, along with a full review of the security management system for presidential overseas trips.
Passports being reissued; a leak, not a hack, officials say
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Park Doo-soon told a briefing that the ministry is conducting a comprehensive investigation with relevant agencies, including technical inspections of computers and email accounts connected with the president's June trip, and is arranging for passports to be reissued to all those affected, including Lee and the first lady. Park said the incident is currently being treated as a "leak" rather than a hacking incident, and noted that all materials related to presidential overseas trips are managed as classified documents. The ministry also reported the breach to the Personal Information Protection Commission on Tuesday morning.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Lee also called for officials to actively consider creating a high-level body to coordinate responses to cyberattacks across the public and private sectors, as South Korea faces growing concerns over hacking and data breaches.
What remains unknown is how the confidential file left government hands, who downloaded it during the five months it was online, and whether the data was misused. A Foreign Ministry official said there was no evidence so far that the information had spread further. Broadcaster KBS, which discovered the file online and informed the presidential office, first reported the leak on Monday; the presidential office said it had become aware of the matter before the report and had already taken action.
Police say the preliminary inquiry will establish how the passenger list was posted and how it leaked, before the case moves to a formal investigation. The Foreign Ministry and the privacy watchdog are running parallel checks, all 168 affected people are getting new passports, and the presidential office has ordered a review of how classified trip documents are handled.