SEOUL - South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday announced the arrest of two former army officers on charges of obtaining classified military information for a U.S. defense company.
Prosecutors said the two ex-colonels, identified only as Hwang and Ryu, work for the Security Management Institute, a private organization with access to defense information.
They said the ex-officers had acquired information for Northrop Grumman.
Hwang, 64, set up the private institute after heading the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses, a defense ministry think-tank, for three years.
Information they allegedly acquired through contacts with military officers covered the operations and arms acquisition projects of South Korea's coast guard and navy, prosecutors said.
Hwang had been questioned as part of a probe into alleged wrongdoing involving foreign defense firms.
A former air force major-general was arrested on Oct. 16 on charges of leaking classified military information to Swedish defense and aviation company Saab.
The ex-general is suspected of handing over information on the multi-million-dollar KF-X program to develop stealth fighters, an official at the prosecutors' office in Seoul told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Saab reportedly denied any wrongdoing and said it was cooperating with the investigation.
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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