12th August 2026 – (Seoul) South Korea’s Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency said on Tuesday that two Chinese men have been arrested for alleged hostile activities around South Korean and US military facilities, one accused of intercepting fighter-jet radio traffic and the other of paying a Korean base worker for joint-exercise material.
A Chinese military retiree in his sixties, identified only as A, is alleged to have used a software-defined radio receiver, antennas and a laptop in an April hotel room less than one kilometre from Gunsan Airport in North Jeolla Province, where South Korean and US air forces operate. He was detained last Friday, 7th August, on suspicion of ordinary enemy-benefiting offences and breaches of the Communications Secrets Protection Act after arriving in Korea with the equipment.
Investigators said A held a tourist visa and had made repeated trips since January of the year before last that coincided with Korea-US air force joint drills. Police are conducting digital forensics on his devices and examining whether South Korean military information reached Chinese authorities.
The second suspect, B, aged 45 and described as an ethnic Korean Chinese military retiree who claimed special-forces experience, is alleged to have run a military-goods shop near the main gate of US Army Garrison Humphreys as cover. From November 2021 to May this year he is accused of paying a South Korean employee at the camp for material on the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, Korean personnel postings, command posts and inauguration ceremony photographs, and of filming weapons movements inside the garrison.
Police said they had tracked B for several years. He faces ordinary enemy-benefiting allegations and breaches of the Military Bases Act; a court issued an arrest warrant on Monday, 10th August.