'Honey trap': Nvidia spy scandal puts Korea on alert

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with a Chinese woman accused of spying for Beijing has emerged as a significant national security concern for the United States.

According to U.S. intelligence officials, Alice Huang, who worked as a business executive at Singapore-based data center firm Megaspeed in 2023, allegedly collected intelligence and passed it on to China. The scandal erupted amid an intensifying race between the U.S. and China for global leadership in artificial intelligence (AI).

The case has served as a wake-up call for South Korea.

Yoo Seong-ok, a retired intelligence official who previously served as president of the Institute for National Security Strategy during his career at the National Intelligence Service (NIS), warned that South Korea is equally vulnerable to espionage operations by foreign intelligence agencies seeking to steal critical technologies.

“Chinese [or] North Korean spies — or both — could have used, or may still be using, a similar honey trap to the one allegedly used against Nvidia CEO Huang to gather confidential information and pass it on to their intelligence agencies,” he told The Korea Times.

More significantly, Yoo suggested that sensitive information about Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and their technologies may already have been passed to Chinese rivals, given Nvidia’s close business ties with the two Korean chipmakers.

Jensen Huang has held several meetings under what has been dubbed the “AI buddy alliance” with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won, both in South Korea and the United States.

“According to media reports, the Nvidia CEO and Alice Huang are said to have been intimate. He could have unconsciously shared details of his meetings with Korean business leaders when talking to the woman. Who knows?” Yoo said.

South Korea has ample reason to be a target of foreign espionage. Its manufacturers play a pivotal role in the global AI industry, supplying the critical components that power AI computing.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix dominate the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, together accounting for more than 80 percent of global market share. Their strategic importance to the global AI supply chain makes both companies, as well as their top executives, potential targets of foreign intelligence operations.

Jang Seok-kwang, another former NIS official, said the Nvidia scandal carries broader and significant implications for South Korea’s intelligence community, as foreign intelligence agencies, especially China's, mobilize not only intelligence officers but also people from all walks of life, including students, journalists and businesspeople, to gather intelligence.

In recent years, a clear trend has emerged across the global intelligence community: Countries are strengthening their intelligence capabilities to address evolving security challenges.

The European Commission is considering establishing an intelligence body under President Ursula von der Leyen to respond to technological and geopolitical challenges in the AI era. Japan has taken similar steps, undertaking a national security and intelligence overhaul since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office. The country has also established a National Intelligence Council to oversee its intelligence strategy.

South Korea, however, has moved in the opposite direction.

In August, the Defense Counterintelligence Command was disbanded, more than a year after its involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Dec. 3, 2024, martial law declaration.

The NIS’ counterintelligence capabilities have also been significantly weakened since January 2024, when its authority to detect and investigate espionage cases was transferred to the police.

“Since then, not a single North Korean spy has been apprehended. This suggests that the country is doing virtually nothing about counterintelligence,” Yoo said.

Jang shared similar concerns. He noted that countries around the world have intensified intelligence gathering and analysis activities to cope with the changing security environment.

“Countries such as China, Russia and North Korea have stepped up espionage operations to obtain critical technologies and intelligence. Given this situation, what South Korea has done makes little sense,” he said.

Beyond semiconductors, Jang warned that other strategic sectors, particularly the defense industry, are increasingly becoming targets of foreign espionage. He stressed that South Korea must urgently strengthen its counterintelligence capabilities to protect its strategic technologies, industrial assets and national security.