South Korea nuclear cyberattack drill

The government-owned Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company (KHNP) said the drill, which began on Monday and was to last for two days, was being conducted on four of the country's 23 nuclear plants.

"The two-day drill is under way through simulators to ensure the safety of our nuclear power plants under cyberattacks," said a spokesman for the company, Kim Tae-Seok said.

The company said the drills were meant to prepare workers for a cyberattack aimed at disabling the plants' controlling systems.

This comes after a series of online leaks featuring information about the company's facilities and its 10,000 employees.

Last week, documents including layouts of nuclear facilities were published online. KHNP said the information was not classified as confidential.

Threat of attack

On Sunday, the company received a threat via Twitter, in which it was told to shut down three nuclear plants on December 25 or more data would be leaked. The Twitter user, describing his or herself as the "president of the anti-nuclear reactor group," also threatened to carry out an attack if the demand was not met.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the threat.

KHNP has sought to reassure South Koreans, saying the leaks were not related to core technologies and that they did not threaten the safety of the nuclear reactors.

This coincides with a time of heightened fears about cyberattacks, particularly after Sony Pictures cancelled a movie release due to cyberattack that escalated to a threat to physically attack cinema-goers. Washington has blamed South Korea's arch rival, North Korea for that attack.

Cyberattacks condemned

Meanwhile, China on Monday issued a statement citing the foreign minister, Wang Yi ,as condemning "all forms" of cyberattacks. The foreign ministry did not mention North Korea in the statement, which came after Yi spoke to US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone conversation on Sunday night.

Later on Monday, the United Nations Security Council will meet to discuss the human rights situation in North Korea, a meeting that Pyongyang has said it plans to skip.

pfd/es (AP, AFP, Reuters)