Industrial spy cases on rise in Korea

The number of industrial espionage cases has been continuously rising since 2004, mostly by former and current employees, a report showed Sunday.

The National Intelligence Service intercepted 203 cases over the past six years in which the culprits stole and tried to sell abroad domestically developed technologies, according to the report by the agency-affiliated National Industrial Security Center.

Last year, it discovered 43 such incidents, the most during the cited period. There were 42 cases in 2008, 32 in 2007 and 31 in 2006. The agency detected 29 cases in 2005 and 26 in 2004.

South Korea is home to the world's leading manufacturers of semiconductors, mobile phones and flat-panel televisions, including Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

The report found the nation's electronics industry was the main target of industrial spying, accounting for 48.3 percent of the total cases, according to the report.

More than 80 percent of the cases involved current and former employees of the companies, the report said.

Early this year, prosecutors indicted 18 people for allegedly stealing chip-manufacturing technology from Samsung and Hynix.