China Says It Has Nothing to Do with Hacking Allegation

The Embassy of the People`s Republic of China in Korea on July 26 made an official response to an allegation that a hacking group based in China broke into Korean government agencies’ computer networks in its systematic attempt to dismantle their systems. It denied the allegation and also asked relevant Korean agencies to provide itself with “detailed circumstances and evidence” related to this case.

The Chinese Embassy on the same day also revealed in a statement made by its spokesperson that “hacking is an unlawful act throughout the world, and the Chinese government has been consistently cracking down on such illegal acts.”

The embassy argued, “Beijing has been keen on reports on the incident by Korean media. Relevant authorities in China have already been investigating into it. We want further collaboration with Seoul and will deal with the situation following deep probes into this.” It also requested the Korean media to deliver their reports regarding the matter after deep consideration on such Chinese positions, after finding the facts.

On July 20 the Chinese Xinhua News Agency quoted the Youth Reference newspaper (on July 19) as saying, “Korean media sources have reported allegations that students from a foreign language institution of the Chinese People`s Liberation Army have been involved in the hacking. However, it’s a negligent report since they have not provided evidence.”

Hyong-gwon Pu bookum90@donga.com