Gov't moves to seize profits from industrial technology theft, activates cross-ministry task force

The government will move to confiscate financial gains derived from the theft of national industrial technology, expanding the scope of asset forfeiture beyond what current law allows to make penalties for technology theft more effective.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy also plans to submit an amendment to the Industrial Technology Protection Act to the National Assembly this month and will release the sixth comprehensive industrial technology protection plan one year ahead of schedule — this year.

The ministry said it held the 76th Industrial Technology Protection Committee meeting Monday at the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE) in Jongno-gu, Seoul, chaired by Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan, where the measures were discussed.

The Korean National Police Agency, the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, the Public Prosecution Service and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration attended the meeting alongside standing committee members to strengthen cross-ministry cooperation on technology protection policy and technology theft investigations. The Industrial Technology Protection Committee was established under Article 7 of the Industrial Technology Protection Act to deliberate on industrial technology protection policy and the approval of exports of nationally critical technologies.

According to the National Intelligence Service, the number of overseas industrial technology leak cases has hovered around 20 per year — 22 in 2021, 20 in 2022, 23 in 2023, 23 in 2024 and 19 in 2025.

In response, the government has drawn up a set of priority tasks covering the full spectrum from prevention to post-incident punishment and the building of a technology security foundation.

First, the government will expand the scope of criminal proceeds subject to confiscation and recovery so that penalties outweigh any gains from theft. It will also require that damages awards include at least the research and development costs the victimized company invested in the technology, aiming to eliminate any financial incentive to steal.

Under Article 36, Paragraph 5 of the current Industrial Technology Protection Act, assets subject to forfeiture are limited to "property obtained through criminal acts." Because courts have interpreted this narrowly in practice — applying it only to direct gains — the government intends to amend the law to extend forfeiture to all financial benefits derived from the use of stolen technology.

The government will also work to close protection gaps for small and medium-sized enterprises and universities. It plans to strengthen the frequency and scope of compliance inspections and introduce provisions allowing authorities to issue corrective orders when companies fail to implement required improvements. Vulnerability assessments and support will be expanded for security-weak partner firms, and security management for research and development projects involving nationally critical technologies will be tightened to prevent leaks at the research level.

Proactive protection for nationally critical and other important technologies will also be reinforced. The government will designate technologies requiring protection as nationally critical in a timely manner and will broaden the scope of review to cover the sale or withdrawal of overseas subsidiaries and foreign acquisitions of domestic companies and organizations through mergers and acquisitions, to prevent damage to national security and the competitiveness of domestic industries.

Efforts to retain key talent in advanced industries such as semiconductors will be strengthened as well. The government will work with related ministries to explore institutional improvements that minimize any infringement on constitutionally protected rights, including freedom of occupation. It will particularly examine incentive schemes and mechanisms for sharing information to verify whether employees have changed jobs, drawing on requests companies have raised at industry consultations.

The government will also build a tighter cooperative framework between policy ministries and investigative agencies. It plans to grant the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy special judicial police authority over technology theft cases to sharpen the investigation system, and to accelerate responses to leak incidents through greater inter-agency information sharing.

The government will support efforts to deepen the judiciary's expertise in technology theft cases. It will work to raise public awareness of the need to increase sentencing guidelines at the Supreme Court and to establish new fine-based sentencing standards, with the aim of raising the practical level of punishment. Courts will also be able to consult the ministry during trials to verify whether a given technology qualifies as an industrial technology, preventing perpetrators from escaping punishment on definitional grounds.

"We plan to reflect these measures in amendments to the Industrial Technology Protection Act and the National Advanced Strategic Industries Act and submit them to the National Assembly this month," the ministry said. "We also plan to incorporate them into the sixth comprehensive industrial technology protection plan, which we are preparing one year ahead of schedule with the goal of releasing it this year."

"Technology theft is a grave matter that can instantly destroy the industrial competitiveness a nation and its companies have built up over years at enormous cost, and it threatens national security — it cannot be treated lightly," Minister Kim said. He added that the government would follow through without fail on submitting the legislative amendments and releasing the comprehensive plan to protect the country's industrial technology.