National Tax Service apologizes for 'coin wallet private key leak'… Deputy PM Koo Yun-cheol: "Fact-finding inspection"

South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) has issued an apology after an incident in which the private key of a digital-asset wallet was leaked, leading to the loss of a large amount of cryptocurrency.

According to industry sources on the 1st (Korea time), the NTS said in a media message that "an incident occurred in which a delinquent taxpayer’s digital-asset information was leaked during the briefing process on the results of a manhunt for delinquent taxpayers on the 26th of last month," adding, "We sincerely apologize to the public."

The NTS said, "While trying to provide more vivid information (about the incident), we failed to recognize that sensitive information was included and carelessly provided the original photo to the media," adding, "There is no excuse."

The NTS has confirmed the leak and is tracking the stolen digital assets through its own tracing program. It also said it has requested an investigation by the National Police Agency and is making every effort to recover the leaked assets.

In response to the incident, the NTS plans to strengthen internal controls and overhaul its custody and sale manuals for seized digital assets.

Koo Yun-cheol, Minister of Finance and Economy and Deputy Prime Minister, also stressed that "the government will, together with relevant agencies including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, inspect the status and management practices of digital assets held and managed by the government and public institutions through seizures from delinquent taxpayers," adding that it will "swiftly draw up and implement measures to prevent a recurrence, including stronger digital-asset security management."

Previously, on the 26th, the NTS secured a USB-type digital-asset wallet while seizing a delinquent taxpayer’s assets and prepared a press release. However, the wallet and mnemonic phrase (a wallet recovery phrase) were openly exposed in the release, and digital assets worth about $4.8 million were stolen.