File containing personal info of presidential jet passengers was in Foreign Ministry format

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Park Doo-soon arrives at a briefing at the ministry’s offices in the central government complex in Seoul on Nov. 3, 2026. (Yonhap)

A file containing personal information for 168 passengers on South Korea’s presidential aircraft that was leaked online ahead of President Lee Jae Myung’s European visit in June was an Excel spreadsheet drafted in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs document format. 

The administration has begun an investigation with the police and National Intelligence Service and is viewing the incident as having more likely been an internal leak than a hack.

In a briefing at the ministry complex on Tuesday, ministry spokesperson Park Doo-soon said the incident was being “viewed as a leak” rather than a hack.

A ministry official explained, “An emergency security inspection carried out overnight after the event was detected [on Monday] showed no unusual accessing of the mail system.”

“We are speculating that this was not a leak due to hacking but [an internal] leak in the process of preparing for the event,” they added.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed that the file containing passenger personal information was in the ministry’s own document format.

A ministry official said, “As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is ordinarily the institution that oversees these travel events, it has the responsibility of collecting and compiling such [passenger] information.”

“The format in which the Excel spreadsheet was drafted was indeed the format used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its documents,” they added.

They went on to explain, “Because it was an Excel spreadsheet, it was not a document drafted in an official announcement format, and there was no stamp applied.”

The official declined to confirm whether the document originated from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying the investigation was still ongoing.

In its investigation, the ministry is leaving open the possibility of an internal leak having occurred.

A Foreign Ministry official said the document in question was “only available for viewing by employees with security access.”

“In our investigation, we are considering the possibility of a leak by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or another source,” they continued.

The investigation is being conducted by the ministry’s cybersecurity team in cooperation with the Korean National Police Agency and the National Intelligence Service.

In an emergency meeting presided over by the Blue House chief of staff, Lim Kwang-hyun, on Tuesday, the presidential office announced plans to investigate the incident thoroughly to assign responsibility.

On Monday, the KBS network reported that a file containing personal information such as passport numbers, affiliations and job titles for 168 presidential aircraft passengers on a scheduled European visit by President Lee Jae Myung in June had been accessible for the past five months on an overseas paid malware search website.

The passengers in question included Lee and his wife, senior Blue House advisers, Cabinet ministers, and reporters.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter; Park Min-hee, senior staff writer