Seoul - North Korea's military is maintaining a unit of about 100 computer hackers working on attacks against the South Korean and the US military, media reports in Seoul said Tuesday.

Attacks by this "technology reconnaissance team" were aimed at interrupting other countries' military computer networks and obtaining confidential information, the South Korean Yonhap news agency said, citing intelligence sources.

"This unit tries to hold control of South Korean and US military information systems by hacking into their computer networks and taking out classified data," an unnamed official was quoted as saying. "When necessary, they may spread computer viruses to disrupt the networks."

The majority of North Korea's cyber warriors was trained at a military academy in Pyongyang. South Korean media already reported five years ago about the existence of Northern hacker units, quoting military sources, saying that Pyongyang's intelligence activities had reached the "level of developed countries."

The two Koreas are still technically at war as no peace treaty was signed after the end of the Korean War (1950-53). (dpa)