In a separate incident, Mr. A (65), a former Samsung Electronics executive vice president renowned for his semiconductor expertise in Korea, founded a semiconductor manufacturing company, B, in Singapore in July 2015. Subsequently, he was apprehended while attempting to establish a “clone factory” for Samsung semiconductors in China, employing 200 former Samsung personnel. The photograph illustrates the Pyeongtaek campus of Samsung Electronics.
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – About 65 percent of industrial technology that got leaked overseas ended up in China.
The National Police Agency recently shared data with Representative Cho Eun-hee, a member of the National Assembly’s Administrative Affairs and Security Committee. They reported that there were 78 cases of industrial technology leaks discovered by the police between 2018 and June this year, resulting in 225 arrests.
Out of these cases, China was involved in 51 of them, making up 65.4 percent of the total. The United States had eight cases (10.3 percent), and Taiwan and Japan had five cases each (6.4 percent). Some technology also ended up in Uzbekistan, Malaysia, France, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, India, Hungary, Iraq, and Australia.
The industries most affected by these leaks were machinery with 16 cases, followed by electrical and electronics (11 cases), display (10 cases), shipbuilding (9 cases), automotive and railroad (4 cases), information and communication (4 cases), and robotics (3 cases). Even the semiconductor industry, a significant sector in Korea, saw two leaks in 2020 and 2021.
In one major case, 13 individuals were arrested for illegally exporting critical materials and leaking core drawings to foreign companies. Three of them were detained, and their illegal gains amounted to 60.6 billion won, which was seized before their prosecution.
Additionally, a foreign national who was working on robot development in a domestic hospital was caught disclosing trade secrets in exchange for government subsidies abroad.
Representative Cho emphasized the importance of protecting industrial technologies accumulated by companies over time, as they are crucial for national competitiveness. She urged law enforcement agencies to actively combat the leakage of such technologies abroad.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
