North Korea has been accused of hacking into the email accounts of dozens of South Korean government officials.

Prosecutors in South Korea say a "suspected North Korea-operated group" attempted to hack into the emails of 90 people.

These include officials at the foreign, defence and unification ministries, from January to June this year.

"The passwords of 56 accounts were stolen," a statement from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said.

The hackers allegedly set up 27 phishing sites in January posing as popular portals like Google and South Korea's Naver.


They also posed as government and university websites to steal the passwords.

The prosecutors said the malicious codes used in the latest attack were the same as the ones used by North Korea in previous instances.

June: Launch Of North Korean Missile

An investigation is still ongoing to see if any confidential information may have been leaked.

The attack comes days after the North reportedly stole the data of 10 million customers at South Korean online shopping mall Interpark.

The National Police Agency said the North's main spy agency - the Reconnaissance General Bureau - had organised the hack.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have intensified since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a series of ballistic missile tests.