By Kim Rahn
The number of people caught leaking Korean companies’ industrial technologies to foreign competitors is rising, according to police.
The National Police Agency said Wednesday that 74 people were indicted for technology theft between January and October, up from 58 in 2013 and 67 in 2014.
“Leaking domestic industrial technology has led to an outflow of national wealth, damaging the nation’s industrial competitiveness,” an agency official said. “We are intensifying investigation into such leakage cases.”
Earlier this year, police nabbed 22 people for allegedly leaking key technologies of Hyundai Motor, including design drawings of vehicles which the Korean automaker was planning to release, to a Chinese motor company. The leaked technologies were worth hundreds of billions of won, according to police.
In another case in May, 15 people were caught for leaking gas cylinder technology from a chair maker where they had worked. They allegedly set up a new company, making and importing products with the technology.
Last month, an Indian man was arrested for stealing design drawings of oil drilling ships, which are part of one of the state-designated core national technologies, while working as an engineer at three Korean shipbuilders.