(LEAD) Hacking group releases second list of N. Korean Web members

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details thoughout)

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- An international hacking group released on Saturday its second list of thousands of members it claims were registered with North Korea's main news and propaganda Web site, Uriminzokkiri. Investigators suspect that the list may include some South Koreans.

Through its account on Twitter (@YourAnonNewsKR), the group, which calls itself "Anonymous Korea," released the personal information of 6,216 members registered on the North Korean propaganda 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.

Anonymous Korea is part of the Anonymous hacktivist group, a loose association of hackers from all over the world whose exact identities have never been made public. The group caused a sensation when it took credit for hacking into five North Korean Internet sites on Thursday, and claimed to have stolen information on over 15,000 registered members.

The new release comes just two days after the group divulged personal information of 9,001 accounts registered with Uriminzokkiri, which included around 2,000 South Korean accounts. A majority of the email accounts, about 4,000, were based in China, which is also the home of the propaganda site's server.

Besides Uriminzokkiri, the hacking group broke into some other major North Korean Web sites run by the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front, Our Nation School and Air Koryo, the North's state-run airline. Uriminzokkiri's Web site has been restored as of 8 p.m. Saturday, although its Twitter account remained down. Others sites that were hacked remained closed.

The hackers said that with the second list, they have released all the information they have of members it took from Uriminzokkiri

As the first list, the latest list includes users' names, genders, e-mails, birthdays and nationalities.

Yonhap News Agency has confirmed that about 500 of the accounts on the two lists used email addresses provided by local portals such as Naver, Hanmail, Nate and Daum, and 111 from accounts originating from various South Korean companies. There also were email accounts traced to Seoul National University and newspapers such as the Chosun Ilbo and Donga llbo.

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

Meanwhile, law enformement officials said membership with the North Korean Web site does not constitute an outright violation of the National Security Law, which prohibits South Koreans from extolling or spreading political ideologies and the ruling Kim family of the enemy state.

Further investigation would be needed into whether the email account owners conducted any anti-state activities, they said.

The National Intelligence Service said it is also screening the list.

colin@yna.co.kr

yonngong@yna.co.kr
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