SEOUL, July 27 (UPI) -- Libya has deported a South Korean official on espionage charges and arrested several other South Koreans, a diplomatic source in Seoul said Tuesday.

The source said an official of the Seoul-based National Intelligence Service was expelled from Libya June 18 on suspicion of attempting to collect information on Libya's leader, Moammar Gadhafi, his family, and key Libyan bureaucrats, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports.

The source told Yonhap that Libyan authorities shadowed the South Korean intelligence official for three months before arresting him.

Following his deportation, Libya "went on a sort of a witch hunt" targeting suspicious South Koreans, the source said.

When South Korea questioned Libya's actions, Libya responded by closing its economic cooperation bureau in Seoul, Yonhap said.

Libya represents one of South Korea's largest construction markets with more than $3 billion in construction contracts signed last year.