US soldier busted for posting fake photos of attack

Prosecutors said Sunday that they confirmed the identity of a 20-year-old Korean-American soldier who allegedly posted online fake photos of North Korea`s attack on Yeonpyeong Island of South Korea.

The soldier is known to have posted satellite photos of a U.S. military strike on Iraq on a Web site as if they were pictures of the site of North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong.

Prosecutors informed the U.S. Forces Korea of his identity.

The soldier reportedly posted satellite photos of a U.S. military strike on Baghdad in the U.S. invasion of Iraq as if they were photos of damage from the North’s shelling of Yeonpyeong. The photos were posted in a bulletin on the Internet site DC Inside at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 23.

He is charged with violation of the Basic Act on Electronic Telecommunications.

According to prosecutors, the soldier downloaded satellite photos of the strike on Baghdad dated April 2, 2003, posted on NASA’s Web site, and then posted them on DC Inside with the title, “Satellite photos uploaded on the server.”

ryu@donga.com