North Korea has stolen information from the smartphones of key South Korean government officials, Seoul’s intelligence agency said Tuesday, adding support to the president’s call for the passage of a disputed cyberterrorism prevention bill.

“It has been confirmed that the North hacked into the smartphones of dozens of government officials from late February to early March, stealing text messages and phone conversations,” the National Intelligence Service said through a press release.

“Authorities are taking countermeasures, such as blocking off the spread of malignant codes, but we fear there may be secondary damages as several confidential phone numbers have been leaked.”

The cyberaggression, however, did not target or impact ordinary citizens, the NIS added.

North Korean hackers also manipulated the intranet of major security software operators here and stole digital certificates of authentication, which are used for e-commerce transactions.

The spy agency’s pressing remarks came after its emergency meeting on national cybersecurity, held to review the communist neighbor state’s recent cyberattacks.

“We take this attack as a prelude to another massive cyberterrorist offense, much like the one that paralyzed the computer systems of several financial and media companies in 2013,” the agency said.

“If not thoroughly prevented in advance, these aggressions may lead to major financial disorder, including Internet banking suspension and illegitimate account transfers.”

The NIS’ announcement largely reflected President Park Geun-hye’s emphasis on cybersecurity on the previous day.

“I ask that the government and parties cooperate in passing the pending cyberterrorist prevention bill and gear up for all potential threats of cyberattacks from North Korea or anywhere else,” Park had said in a meeting with chief secretaries.

Moving in line, the ruling conservative Saenuri Party said that it would convene a provisional parliamentary session this week to push ahead with the bill, while The Minjoo Party of Korea spoke out against what they saw as legislative coercion.

“We will convene a provisional parliamentary meeting to handle pending bills on economic revitalization, labor reforms and cyberterrorism prevention,” said Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Won Yoo-chul.

Won also said he would talk to National Assembly speaker Chung Ui-hwa, demanding he put the cyberterrorism bill to a floor vote on his authority.

The Minjoo Party sternly resisted, citing infringement on people’s basic rights to privacy. It also pointed out that the ruling party had recently forced its way by laying the antiterrorism bill, which triggered a nine-day filibuster, a marathon parliamentary debate in protest against the legislation.

The controversial cyberterrorism prevention bill has been put forward several times over the past parliamentary terms, but reached its expiration date due to a lack of consensus. Saenuri Party Rep. Suh Sang-kee onreturned the bill to the floor this time.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)