SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - South Korea will launch a cyber warfare command centre to fend off attacks on government and military IT networks from North Korea and other countries, officials said Friday.

The plan to create the command centre by 2012 was included in a military reform package presented to President Lee Myung-Bak, the defence ministry said, at a time when relations with North Korea are particularly strained.

South Korea's military computer networks are especially under ever-growing cyber attack.

The South's military security unit said in a report last month that every day the military counters an average of 10,450 hacking attempts and 81,700 computer virus infections.

Experts say South Korea - one of the world's most wired societies - needs an integrated unit to fight cyber attacks by North Korea and China, which run elite hacker units.

In 2004 hackers based in China used information-stealing viruses to break
into the computer systems of Seoul government agencies.

Last year South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo warned his cabinet against what he said were attempts by Chinese and North Korean computer hackers to obtain state secrets.