Tag: Spies

Just think these are just two spies they caught, there are likely many more that have not been detected yet:

Two former Chinese military officers have been arrested for allegedly eavesdropping on communications from fighter jets near a South Korean military base and leaking classified material related to South Korea-U.S. military exercises, police said Tuesday.

One of the suspects, a Chinese national in his 60s, was arrested on suspicions of benefiting the enemy and violating a law on the protection of communications secrets after allegedly making multiple visits to South Korea on a tourist visa and tapping communications between fighter jets and air traffic control towers from a hotel near an airport in the southwestern city of Gunsan, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police. (……….)

Meanwhile, the second suspect, a 45-year-old ethnic Korean with Chinese nationality, was arrested on suspicions of benefiting the enemy and violating a law on the protection of military bases after allegedly recruiting a South Korean woman working at Camp Humphreys, a key U.S. base in Pyeongtaek, some 60 kilometers south of Seoul, to obtain classified material related to allied exercises.

The man allegedly concealed his identity while running a U.S. military supplies store near the base and engaged in the acts from November 2021 until last May as a retired PLA officer.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this shows that even the friendly Korean guy in the Ville may actually be a Chinese intelligence agent.

Considering that they made multiple trips to South Korea to film U.S. and Korean airbases it seems to me that Chinese intelligence was hoping to use high school student in an effort to avoid detection. It worked until a local resident finally noticed them and called police:

Two Chinese nationals were sentenced to prison Thursday for illegally filming fighter jets at several South Korean and U.S. military facilities and attempting to intercept traffic control communications.

The Suwon District Court sentenced an 18-year-old Chinese high school student to an indeterminate prison term of 1 1/2 to two years and a 20-year-old Chinese man to two years in prison, both for general treason. An indeterminate sentence is applied to minors under the juvenile law.

It is the first time in South Korea that a foreigner has been found guilty of general treason under the Criminal Act.

The court also ordered the confiscation of their cameras and other items used in the crime.

The two were arrested and indicted for taking hundreds of detailed photos of fighter jets taking off and landing at major air bases nationwide during multiple visits to South Korea between the second half of 2024 and March last year, when both were high school students.

They were found to have visited four South Korean and U.S. military facilities in Suwon, Osan, Pyeongtaek and Cheongju, as well as three major international airports — Incheon, Gimpo and Jeju. They were caught by police in March last year after a resident reported them for illegally filming fighter jets taking off and landing at Suwon Air Base.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is a bit surprising that South Korea is holding on to North Korean operatives when they have aged into their 90’s:

 Six former North Korean soldiers and spies who were jailed in South Korea for refusing to renounce their socialist beliefs have asked the Seoul government to repatriate them to the North, officials said Tuesday.

Yang Won-jin, 96, Ahn Hak-sop, 95, and four others have recently submitted the formal request to the unification ministry, seeking to return to North Korea, a ministry official said.

Known as “unconverted” long-term prisoners, they are former North Korean soldiers and spies who were arrested in the South before and after the 1950-53 Korean War, an ideologically driven conflict that left the Korean Peninsula divided into the communist North and the democratic South.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting article on how Chinese intelligence agencies are using organized crime groups in China to spy on U.S. military facilities in Palau:

Complicating that plan, however, is a Chinese-owned hotel overlooking Malakal Harbor that U.S. and Palauan officials worry could be used for surveillance.

Across Palau, Chinese businesses and developers have leased land near a half-dozen strategic locations where the United States is beefing up efforts to detect and deter China’s growing reach into the region, according to intelligence and security documents and interviews with 20 American, Palauan and Taiwanese officials.

A months-long Washington Post investigation found that Chinese businesses have leased land or built properties for tourism developments near the port, the airport, a U.S. coastal surveillance outpost and a U.S. “over the horizon” radar system. (Palauan law doesn’t allow foreigners to buy land, but they can lease it for up to 99 years.)

Washington Post

It’s a long read, but I recommend reading the rest at the link. If the Chinese are using organized crime groups to spy on Palau it makes me wonder where else are they doing this?

This case makes me wonder how much of this CAC fraud is going on that we don’t know about that is allowing Chinese access to U.S. military facilities:

A Navy reservist this week pleaded guilty to bribing a Naval Air Station Jacksonville official to provide fraudulent military identification cards to two ineligible individuals with links to China, according to the Justice Department. Raymond Zumba admitted to a federal judge that he had tried to bribe an official who is the spouse of a former shipmate he had served with previously while on active duty.

He attempted to pay $3,500 to the official in exchange for making the “real, but unauthorized” identification cards that would grant access to military bases, according to the DOJ. The IDs were for two individuals, including a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China and a Chinese national who the Justice Department accused of entering the United States without authorization and living under an assumed name. Zumba, 27, of New York City, faces up to 15 years in prison for the charge of bribery of a public official. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled, officials said.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I would hope that ROK counterintelligence agents would be keeping close tabs on any ROK Soldier with ties to China to prevent spying like this:

A South Korean soldier raised in China has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified military information about joint U.S.-South Korean exercises to Chinese intelligence agents, prosecutors said this month. The 22-year-old army supply specialist, whose name has not been released, was arrested April 18 and charged with leaking military secrets and accepting bribes from foreign agents, according to a redacted indictment filed May 15 by the Military Prosecutors’ Office in Gangwon District.

Prosecutors allege the soldier transmitted information — including details related to Ulchi Freedom Shield, a large-scale joint military exercise with the United States — to China’s Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department. The leaked documents reportedly contained sensitive details such as base names, troop schedules and logistical capabilities, along with participating troops’ personal information. The soldier allegedly received about $12,215 via the Chinese digital payment platform Alipay, according to the 15-page indictment.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but this guy had major red flags, he was raised in China by his grandfather who is a retired Soldier and went to college in China as well. While serving in the ROK military he made repeated trips back to China.

Well at least the ROK and the U.S. will know where the Chinese spies will be working out of:

The Chinese government owns 11 plots of land in Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, which sit between 1 and 1.5 kilometers from the proposed future site of the US Embassy and South Korea’s current presidential office, according to a local media report Wednesday.

Asia Business Daily reported that the People’s Republic of China acquired ownership of the land spanning 4,100 square meters in December 2018 for about 29.9 billion won ($21.9 million). It marked the first time that a foreign government’s direct land purchase in the Yongsan area was disclosed to the public.

The properties are at the southern foot of Namsan, just before entering Namsan Tunnels No. 2 and 3 from Noksapyeong-daero in Itaewon-dong. The site previously operated as an outdoor golf driving range for more than 40 years but shut down around the time the land changed hands. Several buildings on the site remain unoccupied.

The Itaewon-dong location sits approximately 1 to 1.5 kilometers from the current presidential office in Samgakji, current presidential residence in Hannam-dong, and the former Camp Coiner site — the designated location for the new US Embassy — all in the district of Yongsan-gu.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the Chinese government is responsible for 64.9% of foreign real estate transactions in South Korea.

The article doesn’t say, but how did these two guys secretly enter Osan Airbase?:

South Korean police arrested two Taiwanese men over the weekend for allegedly entering Osan Air Base without authorization during a U.S.-South Korean military open house and filming the event, according to local media.

The pair, identified as being in their 40s and 60s, were taken into custody Sunday after attending the Air Power Days event on Saturday, Yonhap News reported Monday, citing the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.

The air base, about 30 miles south of Seoul, is home to the U.S. 7th Air Force and the South Korean air force’s operations command. Security procedures for the event required all visitors to bring a form of government identification and check in at the base’s front gate. South Korean visitors were required to have a driver’s license or student ID; foreigners unaffiliated with the U.S. military needed to have a passport.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but Chinese and Taiwanese nationals were forbidden from entering the airbase and some how these two still got in.

China is using all manner of Chinese nationals in South Korea to spy on ROK military facilities:

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported 11 incidents of unauthorized filming of military facilities in Korea by Chinese nationals since June of last year, according to lawmakers Wednesday.

The revelation came during a closed-door meeting between the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee and the NIS, according to Rep. Lee Seong-kweun of the People Power Party and Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the Democratic Party of Korea.

On June 25, 2024, three Chinese nationals were caught flying a drone toward the Naval Operations Command in the southern port city of Busan, taking photos of an aircraft carrier docked at the base.

The NIS noted that these 11 cases of unauthorized filming were primarily carried out by temporary visitors, such as tourists and international students from China, including minors.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It makes you wonder how many other Chinese nationals in South Korea are doing this that haven’t been caught?:

Two Chinese teenagers have been apprehended for illegally filming fighter jets near a major air base in Suwon, police said Monday.

The two Chinese nationals are suspected of using their DSLR camera and mobile phone to film fighter jets landing and taking off from the Air Force’s 10th Fighter Wing at around 3:30 p.m. on March 21, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police.

The teenagers face charges of breaching the Protection of Military Bases and Installations Act and have been placed under a travel ban, police said.

They reportedly attend high school in China and entered the country on a tourist visa three days ahead of the incident. 

After discovering multiple photos of fighter jets on their devices, police are conducting a forensic analysis to determine whether similar photos were also taken at other military facilities, airports and ports.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.