[JURIST] South Korean prosecutors indicted two former naval officers on charges of stealing state secrets Thursday. The two men, now working for German submarine manufacturer Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft [corporate website, in German], allegedly obtained classified documents about South Korea's submarine program from a navy captain, who is also under investigation. AFP has more.

Cases involving the alleged theft of state secrets have been prevalent recently. In May, a Chinese woman who is a permanent resident of New Orleans pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to charges of aiding and abetting espionage by passing US national defense information to Chinese agents. In 2006, Ching Cheong [advocacy website], chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times [media website], was sentenced to five years in jail by a Chinese court after being convicted on charges of selling state secrets and spying for Taiwan [JURIST report]. Cheong was paroled [JURIST report] in February.