“Pre-approval rate for foreign researchers in core technology: 10%… Neglecting the threat of technology leakage”

Analysis of National Power Party Rep. Choi Su-jin’s office… “An act of self-harm to security by opening the back door to foreigners”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Cho Daun = It was pointed out on the 11th that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is neglecting the participation of foreigners who have not gone through prior verification in research and development (R&D) projects under its jurisdiction, raising the risk of leakage of national core technologies.

According to data received by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Choi Su-jin, a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, Small and Medium Venture Business Committee, from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Planning and Evaluation (KIST), only 3 (9.7%) of the 31 security projects, including the development of helicopter main gearbox and solid-state battery, in which foreign researchers have been deployed over the past five years from 2022 to this year, have gone through the pre-approval process.

There were 22 cases (71.0%) in which the prior approval procedure was not implemented, and 6 cases (19.3%) in which the prior approval procedure was insufficient.

In order to prevent technology from being leaked overseas, it is necessary to check whether foreign researchers wishing to participate in security research are dangerous and notify authorities such as the National Intelligence Service of this. For example, in the case of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, when foreigners are involved in security tasks, they must go through a research security review committee.

However, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy responded to the prior approval notification process by saying, "There are no mandatory regulations for reporting to the Minister or notifying the National Intelligence Service," and among the studies under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, there were cases where simple corporate personnel recruitment approval statements such as 'approval of the organization's CEO' and 'recruitment of foreign experts' were submitted as proof of security review instead of formal screening, Representative Choi pointed out.

In response to this criticism, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy initially responded that "there were no cases of bypassing the security review," but later acknowledged the security gap, saying, "There are people who received post-approval because they were not aware of the fact that they needed to receive approval," Rep. Choi said. Some companies that carried out the project also excluded problematic foreign workers from the project.

Representative Choi said, "In a situation where the problem of leakage of national core technology is growing, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, which is supposed to protect it, has left the back door open to foreigners in its own home. It is a clear act of self-harm to security. We must reinvestigate all projects that violated security regulations and consider strong measures such as recovery of project costs."