Asia-Pacific

S Korea asked to look into alleged espionage attempts

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-21 15:47

SEOUL - South Korea has been asked to look into allegations that intelligence officials broke into a hotel room of visiting Indonesian presidential envoys last week, the foreign ministry here said Monday.

Related readings:  Indonesia denies military data missing in ROK

Nicolas T Dammen, Indonesian Ambassador to South Korea, met with a foreign ministry official earlier in the day and asked the official to confirm the alleged involvement of South Korean intelligence officials in the case, the ministry said in a briefing.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper and Hankyoreh newspaper reported three people who intruded into the hotel room in downtown Seoul and fled after being spotted by a member of the Indonesian delegation were actually officials at the National Intelligence Service.

The unidentified intruders tried to steal laptops in the room, according to reports.

"We plan to notify the Indonesian side as soon as we confirm the reports," ministry spokesman Cho Byung-Je told reporters.

The spy agency has strongly denied what the papers said was a failed espionage attempt.

The delegation, led by Indonesia's Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, was here to seek support from the South Korean government and companies for their economic projects. The envoys left Seoul last Thursday.