Technology Leaks: South Korea promises to prevent technology leaks with tougher penalties

South Korea will prepare tougher measures to prevent the sharing of trade secrets abroad amid increasing competition for advanced technologies, the finance minister said on Thursday.

“We will prevent the illegal transfer of advanced technologies to increase the global competitiveness of our companies and strengthen technology leadership,” said Minister Choi Sang-mok.

The government will set up a “big data” system to prevent technology leaks at the patent agency and introduce new regulations to ensure stricter punishment for perpetrators, Choi said. He did not provide details about the harsher penalties under the new rules.

According to the National Intelligence Service, there have been 97 attempts to transfer trade secrets to a foreign country in the past five years, 40 of them in the semiconductor industry.

If successful, they would have caused the country a total loss of around 23 trillion won ($16.85 billion), the spy agency estimates.

Last month, a South Korean executive accused of stealing semiconductor information developed by Samsung Electronics was arrested again on new charges related to the theft of chip processing technology.

South Korea has designated a total of 12 industries as “national strategic technologies” in recent years with targeted financial support and protection to respond to intensifying global competition and supply chain fragmentation. These include industries such as semiconductors, rechargeable batteries, aerospace and artificial intelligence, among others.

($1 = 1,364.9300 won)