SEOUL - SOUTH Korea is seeking a new law to counter spying by countries other than North Korea, officials said on Monday.
The current law, which dates back to the Cold War era, covers 'spying for enemy states' - which in effect means only the North.
The justice ministry said it was pushing to modify the criminal code to cover the gathering of national secrets for allies and other countries.
'Around the world, the line between enemies and allies is getting blurred,' Mr Kwon Ik Hwan of the ministry's criminal law division told journalists.
'We've come to recognise the need to prepare for possible leaks of national secrets to other countries as well, not just North Korea.'
The proposed change will be included in a comprehensive revision to the criminal code by early 2011, justice ministry officials said.
The National Security Act, which stipulates a maximum penalty of death, is now mainly used to try spies acting on behalf of the communist North.
A North Korean female spy who used sex to secure military secrets was jailed for five years last month.
Mr Kwon said the planned new legislation is a pre-emptive measure and he did not know of any particular cases that did not involve North Korea.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended only in an armistice. -- AFP
