South Korean spooks hacked Gmail

SOUTH KOREAN spies have admitted to monitoring a Gmail email account belonging to one of the country's citizens.

According to the local Yonhap news agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) won court approval to monitor a Gmail account belonging to 52-year old Kim Hyung-geun, who has North Korean sympathies.

Hyung-geun is accused of violating the national security law by taking a liking to the North, according to the South Korean spooks' report, and the monitoring was necessary for the collection of email evidence against him.

The NIS is following a line more usually associated with its Northern neighbours and is said to be using packet monitoring on the account. The report adds that it explained in court papers that the monitoring was "inevitable" because Hyung-guen, like many other activists and people that send emails, was seeking refuge in foreign email service providers. In its legal document it added that this made search warrants ineffective.

The arguments filed were enough to win it court approval, adds the report, but it is not known whether Google gave its approval to the monitoring or whether the account had instead been hacked.

Google infamously fell out with Chinese authorities over residents' email hacking, and has frequently accused China of hacking into its systems. China has repeatedly hit back, denying the attacks and calling Google's accusations "spurious". µ