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North Korea stole U.S.-South Korean war plan from 2016, lawmaker says

North Korean hackers stole the U.S. and South Korea’s plans from 2016 for a potential war with the north, including a blueprint for assassinating Kim Jong Un, a lawmaker in Seoul claimed Tuesday.

The cache of top-secret military documents, including Operational Plan 5015 — the most up-to-date outline for war with North Korea – was taken when North Korean-sponsored hackers breached a Defense Ministry data center in September last year, said Rhee Cheol-hee, a member of South Korea’s Democratic Party.

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The documents reportedly include a detailed outline for a strike to take out Kim – plans that are likely to infuriate the North Korean leader, given his reaction to the 2014 Seth Rogen movie that centered on a fictional assassination plot against Kim. North Korea hacked the film studio, Sony Pictures, and demanded the movie be pulled from theaters. Not to mention the recent heightened tensions between North Korea and the U.S.

According to Rhee, the ministry has yet to identify the contents of about four-fifths of the 235 GB of data that was stolen. Among the stolen documents identified are personnel reports on key South Korean and U.S. military officials, data on South Korean military installations and power plants, and minutes from joint military drills between Washington and Seoul, Rhee said in a statement.

READ: Photos: A tourist’s search for everyday life in North Korea

South Korea has not yet responded to Rhee’s claims. It had previously admitted the breach, saying North Korea may have been the culprit, but downplayed the seriousness of the incident and gave no details on what was stolen.

North Korea has denied the hack, but its cyberwarfare unit, known as Bureau 121, has been blamed for an increasing number of powerful attacks in South Korea and further afield in recent years. Defectors have shed some light on the activities of the shadowy bureau, which cybersecurity experts have linked to the “WannaCry” ransomware attack that infected computers around the world in May.

Tensions have escalated sharply on the Korean Peninsula this year over the North’s nuclear activities. In a speech at the United Nations in September, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea; in his latest barb at Kim, on Saturday, he tweeted cryptically that “only one thing will work” in dealing with the rogue regime.

Delivering a keynote address to a military crowd on Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said the Army “must stand ready” to act against North Korea if required.