PARIS (REUTERS) - French security services have detained a civil servant suspected of having tried to pass sensitive government information to a North Korean spy, a judicial source said on Monday (Nov 26).

"An individual was held for questioning on Sunday evening in the context of an investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor's office in March," the source said.

The person is suspected of gathering and delivering to a foreign power information likely to harm national interests, the source said, adding that the French domestic security and intelligence agency DGSI was handling the investigation.

Various French media reported on Monday that the official worked at the Senate, the upper house of the French parliament.

Sources close to Senate President Gerard Larcher confirmed that security officials had searched an office at the premises on Monday.