South Korea blames North for 'cyber attacks'

South Korea has alleged that North Korea is the source behind the 'cyber attacks' carried on several websites in the last month.

South Korean officials said that the attacks hit the presidential office website among other official and media sites on the anniversary of the Korean War, BBC reports.

The report said that investigators found the IP address used in the attacks matched one used in previous hacking attempts by Pyongyang.

The North has also been blamed for cyber attacks on six South Korean banks and broadcasters in March.

Director-general at the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Park Jae-moon speculated that North Korea carried out the attacks and added that the analysis of the 82 malignant codes, collected from the damaged devices, and internet addresses used for the attack, reveal that the hacking methods were the same as those used in the 20 March cyber attacks by North Korea.

Investigators said that the hackers had aimed at stealing personal information from the websites and the affected websites have been restored, the report added.

The science ministry said that the cyber attack seriously undermined the country's image by attacking the websites of symbolic government organisations, such as the presidential office.

North Korea did not comment on the hacking accusations and has been blamed for previous cyber attacks in 2009 and 2011, the report added.