North Korean hackers steal warship and submarine blueprints from South Korean shipyard in latest military cyber-theft carried out by Kim Jong-un's regime

• .Despotic regime thought to have hacked into South's Daewoo Shipbuilding firm
• .Kyung Dae-soo of the Liberty Korea Party said warship blueprints likely stolen
• .North Korea routinely accused of cyber attacks but has previously denied them
• .Daewoo said it was unaware of the issue until yesterday and is now investigating

By Iain Burns For Mailonline

South Korea is 'almost 100 per cent certain' that North Korean hackers have stolen the blueprints for their warships and submarines.  

The despotic regime is thought to have taken the documents after hacking into Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd's database in April last year.

North Korea has often been implicated in cyber attacks in South Korea and elsewhere but Pyongyang has either ignored or denied accusations of hacking.

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Daewoo Shipbuilding, which was hacked, has built several South Korean warships, including an Aegis-class vessel and submarines/ Pictured: South Korean navy vessels sailing in the East Sea in September exercises 

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North Korea has often been implicated in cyber attacks in South Korea and elsewhere but Pyongyang has either ignored or denied accusations of hacking. Pictured: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un celebrates a rocket test in September 

'We are almost 100 per cent certain that North Korean hackers were behind the hacking and stole the company's sensitive documents,' Kyung Dae-soo of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party said yesterday.  

Daewoo Shipbuilding has built several South Korean warships, including an Aegis-class vessel and submarines. It was most likely North Korea had obtained blueprints for these, he said.

About 40,000 documents are believed to have been taken. 

Earlier this month, a different South Korean lawmaker said North Korean hackers had stolen a large number of classified military documents, including South Korea-US wartime operational plans.

The Daewoo hacking was discovered by a division under South Korea's Ministry of Defence in charge of investigating cases of cybercrime, said Kyung, who received a briefing on the investigation.

How sensitive and classified the seized documents were was not known as that was not disclosed by the investigative team, he added.

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British authorities said last week they believed North Korea was behind the 'WannaCry' ransomware attack (pictured) in May that disrupted businesses and government services worldwide, including the National Health Service in England

A spokeswoman for Daewoo Shipbuilding said she was unaware of the issue until early yesterday and the company was in the process of confirming the details of Kyung's remarks.

The investigative team came to the conclusion North Korea had hacked Daewoo Shipbuilding because the hacking method was very similar to other attacks that North Korea was thought to be behind, Kyung said.

Hackers in North Korea are believed to have been responsible for a recent cyber heist in Taiwan - the latest in a string of hacks targeting the global SWIFT messaging system. 

British authorities said last week they believed North Korea was behind the 'WannaCry' ransomware attack in May that disrupted businesses and government services worldwide, including the National Health Service in England.