Cyberattack attempts from China increase this year: foreign ministry

South Korea’s foreign ministry has seen a sharp rise in attempted hackings from China in 2017 from a year earlier, sources said Sunday.

A total of 8,263 cases of cyberattacks or attempted hackings were detected in the foreign ministry servers from January through July, according to data provided to Rep. Park Joo-sun of the minor opposition People’s Party by the foreign office.

The figure is almost on par with the corresponding number of 8,482 tallied for all of 2016, the lawmaker said.

The analysis on internet IP addresses that attempted the cyberattacks shows a considerable portion of them came from China.

The cyberattacks detected from the neighboring country stood at 4,509, accounting for 75 percent of all attempted cyber penetrations. The percentage has risen sharply from 54.7 percent in 2016.

South Korea and China have locked horns over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system on the Korean Peninsula, since Seoul and Washington agreed to the plan last year.

Beijing has slammed the decision for threatening its own security interests, while the two allies have said it is only to counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats.

Last week, Seoul’s military announced the completion of the stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here, a few days after Pyongyang conducted its sixth nuclear test.

President Moon Jae-in defended the deployment Friday, saying it was an inevitable decision to protect the people and country from a belligerent North. Since taking office in May, he had held back from completing the deployment, a decision made by his predecessor Park Geun-hye and her government, citing environmental concerns.