The military has begun investigating suspicions that the Korea Defense Intelligence Command(KDIC) provided assistance to a graduate student who claims to have flown drones across the inter-Korean border. 

A defense ministry official said Monday that the ministry is assisting a joint military-police task force in shedding light on the matter. 

The official stopped short of giving details, saying the investigation is ongoing and that appropriate steps will be taken in line with the findings. 

Earlier, a media outlet quoted a source as saying that a graduate student in his 30s who claimed to have flown drones to the North ran front companies that conduct counterintelligence missions, with support from the KDIC.

According to the report, the student, surnamed Oh, set up and ran two online media outlets that mainly cover North Korea-related stories, and KDIC agents used the outlets as front companies for counterintelligence operations while providing Oh with ten million won for expenses. 

That’s more than 67-hundred U.S. dollars.

According to another outlet, a weekly, a KDIC agent made contact with Oh on several occasions and checked images captured by drones that Oh had sent to the North.