Retired general arrested on charges of leaking military secrets

By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- A former South Korean Air Force major general was
arrested Friday on charges of leaking classified information on long-term air
power enforcement programs, including a multi-million-dollar fighter development
project, to a Swedish defense firm, prosecutors here said.
The retired officer, identified only by his last name Kim, allegedly handed over
confidential information related to the so-called KF-X program, aimed at
developing stealth fighters, to the Seoul branch office of Saab, the Seoul
Central District Prosecutors' Office said.
According to prosecutors, Kim took pictures of classified reports on combined
military strategies from a special library room at Korea National Defense
University in July last year. Based on the camera images, he later wrote
documents in English and delivered them to Saab officials between August 2008 and
May this year, they said.
Kim requested access to the library's confidential reports for research purposes,
citing his enrollment in a university graduate course, the prosecution said.
South Korea has been seeking to replace its aging F-4 and F-5 fighters with ones
developed through the KF-X project, which faces a murky future due to financial
and technological difficulties.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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