The prosecution said Tuesday it indicted the former head of the Korean branch of a France-based defense firm without physical detention on the charge of collecting secrets from the Korean military.

The 65-year-old suspect, whose name was withheld by authorities, is believed to have illegally acquired military secrets from August 2012 to April 2014, according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.

He supposedly received the information from a South Korean defense broker surnamed Kim, and forwarded it to other officials at his company’s headquarters in France.

The leaked documents were grade-three secrets that were presented at the Joint Chiefs of Staff Council meeting, including data related to military satellites, long-distance surface-to-air missiles and an antijamming system, which blocks signaldisrupting offensives.

Prosecutors also indicted a high-ranking official of a Europe-based defense firm for illegally securing classified military information from Kim, including information on the military’s harbor underwater surveillance system and submarine program.

Investigators said Kim handed over the secrets to the Europe-based companies while he was working as a consultant for them.

Kim was arrested in July on the charge of violating the military secret protection law. Kim is purported to have bought a total of 31 grade-two and grade-three military secrets from officers, including an Air Force lieutenant colonel and an Army major who were indicted on the charge of leaking the secrets.

He is also believed to have been linked to a similar case in November, when a local defense contractor was indicted on the charge of illegally collecting military secrets about a military project to improve the Navy’s submarines and leaking them to a German firm.

The leak of classified documents was the latest in a series of recent military-related corruption scandals that have sent shockwaves across the country.

Last month, two officials of the state-run Defense Acquisition Program Administration were arrested on charges of taking bribes from a local company in exchange for granting rights to exclusively provide parts to a Navy rescue and salvage ship.

An annual integrity scale by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission showed that DAPA was one of the most corrupt government bodies in Korea.

By Yoon Min-sik and news reports
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)