Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Two-year prison term upheld for KAIST professor who leaked autonomous tech to China
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By Jung Min-ho
The Supreme Court has upheld a two-year prison sentence for a Korean scholar for leaking autonomous vehicle technologies to China.
The top court on Thursday upheld the lower court's verdict that found him guilty of leaking 72 files, including research data on light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technologies, from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to Chinese professors between November 2017 and February 2020.
The remote-sensing technologies are used to measure real-time distances, which are critical for self-driving automobiles.
In 2017, the scholar joined the Thousand Talents Plan, a Chinese program to hire experts in science and technology from overseas. For his participation, he was reportedly offered 3.3 billion won ($2.4 million) for research projects and other expenses.
His wrongdoing was first detected in 2020 by national intelligence officials. The same year, he was indicted on charges of violating the Industrial Technology Act among other laws.