North Korea broke into the private email account of an assistant to the South Korean president, the president’s office told the BBC.
The breach happened before President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to the UK in November.
The employee’s personal email account was broken into after they used it for work, the president’s office said.
A news report in the local paper said that a very important government official claimed that hackers got into Mr. Yoon’s travel plans.
The Kukmin Ilbo newspaper said that the president’s messages had also been taken.
However, the president’s office did not share what information was taken.
This is believed to be the first time that the North has successfully broken into a member of the South Korean president’s team.
The president’s office said that their security system was not hacked.
“The security breach happened because a careless administrator broke the rules by using a commercial email for work,” a BBC report explained.
North Korea uses computer hacking to steal money and information, and they are getting better at it.
Pyongyang is facing strict international penalties, and its computer hackers are trying to steal lots of money, often in digital money, to support the government and its nuclear weapons plan.
It’s believed they have taken about $3 billion since 2016.
North Korea is believed to do computer hacking to steal secrets from other countries, like information about advanced weapons.
The South Korean government official, who did not want to be identified, told the Kukmin Ilbo newspaper that they were very surprised and upset when they found out about the breach. They said it could have been bad for Mr. Yoon’s safety in other countries.
President Yoon went to London for three days in November. He met King Charles and Queen Camilla, and also Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The South Korean government found out about the problem before the president left for his trip, and they did what was needed to fix it.
It said it had made its security stronger, by telling its team to be more careful, to stop another problem like this from happening.