Over the past five years, 107 cases of overseas leakage of domestic industrial technology have been discovered... Semiconductor sector accounts for 40%

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang Bo-in = In the past five years, there have been 107 cases of leakage of domestic industrial technology overseas. About 40% of these were confirmed to be semiconductor technologies.

According to the '2026 Overseas Leakage of Industrial Technology Status' data submitted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to People Power Party lawmaker Koo Ja-geun, a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, Small and Medium Venture Business Committee on the 27th, there were 107 cases of overseas outflow of industrial technology detected by the National Intelligence Service between 2021 and 2025.

Since this is the number of detected cases, the actual number of leaks is expected to be much higher.

By year, 22 cases were detected in 2021, 20 cases in 2022, 23 cases each in 2023 and 2024, and the number decreased slightly to 19 last year.

By field, semiconductor technology leaks accounted for the most with 40 cases (approximately 37%), followed by displays (21 cases) and electrical and electronics (10 cases). Seven and six cases of technology leaks in the automobile and shipbuilding sectors were also discovered, respectively.

By company size, there were 64 small and medium-sized companies, which was about twice as many as large companies (33). There were 10 cases from universities and research institutes.

Among the leaked technologies, 31 national core technologies were also included.

National core technologies are technologies that have high technical and economic value in domestic and international markets or have high industrial growth potential that are likely to have a significant negative impact on national security and the development of the national economy if leaked overseas.

The largest number of leaks of national core technology was in the semiconductor field (9 cases), while displays and electricity/electronics also accounted for 5 cases each.

Looking at the status of investigations related to technology leak crimes, the National Police Agency sent 230 people in connection with 77 cases of leaking industrial technology domestically and internationally during the same period. Of these, there were 41 cases of overseas leakage (24 cases of national core technology).

Prosecutors have sent 74 cases and 184 people to trial out of 95 cases that violated the Industrial Technology Protection Act over the past five years.

For example, there is a case in which Mr. A, a former manager at Samsung Electronics, was caught unauthorizedly leaking Samsung Electronics' 18-nano DRAM semiconductor process information, a key national technology, and passing it on to the Chinese company Changshin Memory Technology (CXMT).

Mr. A was sentenced to 6 years and 4 months in prison and a fine of 200 million won in a remand trial last April.

The government and the National Assembly are responding to overseas technology leaks by revising the Industrial Technology Protection Act and the Espionage Act.

However, as approximately 20 cases of overseas industrial technology leakage continue to be discovered each year, voices are emerging that the management and control system and related laws to prevent technology leakage must be continuously supplemented.

Commissioner Koo Ja-geun said, "As countries around the world are actively protecting core technologies by strengthening punishment for industrial technology leaks and easing verification requirements, Korea must also establish more thorough measures."