FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin (virtual currency) coins are seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris July 11, 2014. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Monday that North Korea last year stole cryptocurrency from the South worth billions of won and that it was still trying to hack into its exchanges.

“North Korea sent emails that could hack into cryptocurrency exchanges and their customers’ private information and stole (cryptocurrency) worth billions of won,” said Kim Byung-kee, a member of South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee.

Kim did not disclose which exchanges were hacked.

He added that the country’s spy agency assumed that North Korea was continuously trying to hack into exchanges to steal cryptocurrency and that it was trying its best to prevent further hacking.

(This story has been refiled to fix a typo in headline)