Supreme Court affirms four-year sentence for ex-soldier who sold secrets to China

South Korea's Supreme Court has validated a four-year imprisonment and a 20 million-won fine for a former Army sergeant found guilty of espionage for China. The court found no error in the lower court's ruling, which also imposed a monetary forfeiture that the source does not specify. According to investigators, the soldier traveled to Beijing in August 2024 and was approached by a Chinese national who presented himself as an intelligence officer.

The soldier agreed to provide classified material, including details of joint South Korea-U.S. exercises, the U.N. Command, and domestic drills, on seven separate occasions up to February 2025. In exchange, he received about 17.26 million won. Evidence showed he used a wrist-watch-style camera supplied by the Chinese contact to capture the sensitive information.