Four-Year Prison Sentence for Military Confidentiality Leak... Special Warfare Submachine Gun Project Faces Crisis

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] A retired Army lieutenant colonel was sentenced to prison for leaking military secrets related to rifles. The leaked military secrets were found to have been transferred to a defense company developing submachine guns for special operations, putting the entire project at risk of being reset to square one.

According to military authorities on the 7th, the Ministry of National Defense Ordinary Military Court held a sentencing trial yesterday for Song Mo, an executive of the defense company Dasan Gigong, on charges of violating the Military Secrets Protection Act, and sentenced him to four years in prison.

The court found that before Song joined Dasan Gigong, he directly called Dasan Gigong personnel or visited their office to provide military secrets. In particular, it was determined that in exchange for multiple instances of leaking and providing military secrets, he received money and entertainment worth approximately 5.5 million KRW over 23 occasions during 3 years and 5 months, and even requested employment.

With Song receiving a prison sentence, the next special operations submachine gun Type 1 (system development) project awarded to Dasan Gigong is also facing cancellation. After Song’s arrest, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration halted the submachine gun development project in June.

Some argue that Dasan Gigong’s designation as a defense company should also be revoked. Being designated as a defense company grants production rights and tax benefits for defense materials. According to Article 48 of the Defense Acquisition Program Act, if the representative or executive of a defense company violates the contents of the integrity pledge, the head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration may cancel the company’s designation.

However, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration recently decided to impose a sanction preventing Dasan Gigong from participating in bids for 12 months, rather than canceling its defense company designation. The administration’s position is that designation can only be revoked for contracts involving fraudulent acts.

A military official said, “If fraudulent acts were committed regarding firearms used by the military, production of those firearms should be prohibited,” and added, “The designation of the company as a defense company should be revoked.”