[Breaking] Former Partner Company Employee Sentenced to Prison in First Trial for Leaking Old Daewoo Shipbuilding Submarine Blueprints

Changwon District Court Masan Branch, Gyeongnam. Photo by Se Ryeong Lee

A former employee of a Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (now Hanwha Ocean) partner company, who was indicted on charges of leaking submarine design blueprints overseas, has been sentenced to prison in the first trial.

On the afternoon of December 16, the Criminal Division 3 (Presiding Judge Kim Nam-il) of the Masan Branch of the Changwon District Court in Gyeongnam sentenced Mr. A, who was prosecuted for violating the Foreign Trade Act, to two years and six months in prison.

The court also ordered Mr. A's company to pay a fine of 15 billion won and imposed an additional forfeiture of 95,013,486,271 won. Mr. A’s bail was revoked as well.

Mr. A, after working at a Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering partner firm, moved to a company specializing in the design and sale of military products. He was accused of leaking Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering’s submarine design blueprints to Taiwan without obtaining export approval for strategic technologies from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

The blueprints in question were for the export-type submarine model 'DSME1400,' which Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering exported to Indonesia in 2019. After the leak, these designs were reportedly used in the development of Taiwan’s first domestically produced submarine, 'Haikun.'

The court stated, "Mr. A claims the export items were security equipment, but they are determined to be the blueprints themselves. He also argues that they are not trade secrets, but given the contents and the standardized technology in the blueprints, it cannot be said they are not trade secrets." The court concluded, "All charges are recognized."