South Korean government websites attacked

PanARMENIAN.Net - South Korea has issued a cyber alert after an apparent hacking attack on government websites, according to BBC News.

The website of the presidential office was one of several official and media sites hit by an apparently coordinated attack on Tuesday, June 25 morning. The identity of the hackers was not known, a government statement said.

The incident came on the anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War, which divided the Korean peninsula.

"The government can confirm a cyber attack by unidentified hackers that shut down several sites including the Blue House," the Science Ministry said in a statement, referring to the presidential office.

The website for the office for Government Policy Co-ordination was also affected by the attack, as were some media servers, the ministry said.

According to reports, messages praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and claiming that hacking collective Anonymous was responsible were left on the hacked websites.

However, Anonymous denied any involvement on its official Twitter account.

Anonymous has previously claimed to have hacked and vandalized social networking profiles linked to North Korea as part of its Operation Free Korea.

A number of North Korean websites also appeared to have been targeted by hackers, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.

The websites of North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, newspaper Rodong Sinmun, and portal Naenara all appeared to be offline on Tuesday morning, Yonhap said.

On March 20, cyber attacks on six South Korean banks and broadcasters affected 32,000 computers and disrupted banking services.

South Korea has blamed that incident - which came at a time of heightened tensions between the two Koreas following Pyongyang's nuclear test on 12 February - on North Korea.

North Korea has also been blamed for previous cyber attacks in 2009 and 2011.