SEOUL, April 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korean law enforcement officials have begun their review of a list of 15,000 members that were claimed by an international hacking group to be registered at North Korea's main propaganda Web site Uriminzokkiri, sources said Sunday.

   The move comes after "Anonymous Korea," part of the international hacktivist group "Anonymous," discharged the personal information of over 15,000 members registered on the North Korean Web site, operated by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, the North's arm for dealing with cross-border affairs with South Korea, via two separate releases.

   Anonymous is a loose association of hackers around the world whose exact identities have never been made public. The group caused a stir when it took credit for hacking into five North Korean Internet sites on Thursday, and claimed to have stolen information of the registered members.

   Seoul's law enforcement officials plan to verify the accounts of the members on the list and look into any violations of the National Security Law, which prohibits South Koreans from extolling or spreading political ideologies from the ruling Kim family of the enemy state.

   As of Saturday, identities of at least 2,600 members on the two lists could be traced directly to people using South Korean portal-run email services.

   "We are sorting those who are presumed to be South Korean nationals by analyzing the names, IDs and e-mail accounts of the 15,000 people on the list," said a police official.

   Since Uriminzokkiri does not require mobile phone or authenticated certificates when joining the Web site, the list may include false-name accounts, according to law enforcement officials.

   "The disclosed list may include a large number of false-name accounts. We are going to verify those," said a prosecution official.

   After verifying whether the people on the list actually joined the Web site or had their IDs stolen, officials plan to probe the purpose of their membership.

   Membership alone is not expected to constitute an outright violation of the National Security Law, while repetitively posting texts on praising the North or distributing those texts may be subject to legal punishment.

   "We just have the list right now. Since investigations are subject to official procedures, the list itself is just evidence at the current stage," said a prosecution official.

   "Following the classification, there will additional procedures, such as identifying the members and gathering more evidence. It's likely to take a long time since the disclosed material is extensive," said a police official.

   mil@yna.co.kr
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