Two Chinese nationals with military backgrounds referred to prosecution over spying allegations

Two Chinese nationals have been indicted this month for allegedly intercepting fighter jet communications at Korean military air bases and collecting military training materials at U.S. military bases. Investigators have found that they previously served in China's People’s Liberation Army in a signals intelligence unit and the special forces.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police arrested a man on Aug. 10 on charges of aiding an enemy and violating the Protection of Communications Secrets Act for allegedly illegally collecting communications between control towers and fighter pilots at military airfields, including Gunsan Airport in North Jeolla, authorities said Tuesday.

The suspect is accused of intercepting communications between fighter pilots and control towers on 13 occasions from March 2024 through August of this year at locations including air bases in Gunsan, North Jeolla, Osan, Gyeonggi and Gwangju as well as Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi and the naval base in Busan, according to the indictment.

The software-defined radio (SDR) receiver the suspect installed to intercept communications was reportedly capable only of one-way reception, like a radio, which made it difficult for those communicating to detect the interception.

Investigators found that the suspect had served for around 40 years in a signals intelligence unit under the General Staff Department of China’s People’s Liberation Army and held the rank of senior colonel, equivalent to a lieutenant colonel in the Korean military.

The suspect, who had no previous record of entering Korea, was found to have entered the country several times since January 2024 during periods when the Korean and U.S. air forces were conducting military exercises.

The suspect argued that he has "a hobby of listening to civilian aircraft communications and wanted to listen to communications between fighter pilots" during his police questioning.

A Chinese national of Korean ethnicity who allegedly collected military training materials at U.S. bases around the same period was also apprehended.

The second suspect entered Korea in 2016 on an Overseas Korean visa and operated a military surplus store near the main gate of a U.S. military base from November 2021 through May. The suspect is accused of cultivating contacts inside the military and obtaining classified military information.

The suspect allegedly developed personal relationships with active-duty U.S. service members and a Korean civilian working at the secretariat of the U.S. Eighth Army headquarters and received military-related materials from them.

Investigators determined that the civilian provided the suspect with photographs from inauguration ceremonies for U.S. military commanders, materials identifying the workplaces of U.S. generals and an after-action review from the 2023 Ulchi exercise.

Materials the suspect obtained from active-duty U.S. service members included footage of flight, takeoff and landing exercises involving Apache attack helicopters and F-35 fighter jets as well as videos of U.S. military parachute drops and assembly exercises, investigators found.

The investigation found that the suspect had served in a People’s Liberation Army special forces unit and a public security bureau from 1998 to 2006.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police also arrested the suspect in August on charges of aiding an enemy and referred the case to prosecutors.

The cases have raised suspicions that the activities may have been part of Chinese espionage efforts targeting the Korean military and U.S. Forces Korea. It has not been established, however, whether either suspect acted under instructions from Chinese authorities or whether the two were connected.

BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]