South Korea Broadens Espionage Law to Protect High-Tech Secrets

South Korea has implemented a revised Criminal Act that broadens the definition of espionage to target the theft of state secrets for any foreign power. The legal shift marks a strategic pivot toward economic security as the nation seeks to protect its dominance in critical high-tech sectors.

Under the newly added Article 98-2, the law now applies to individuals who search for, collect, disclose, transfer, or broker state secrets under the direction of any foreign country or equivalent organization. Previously, South Korean espionage laws were narrowly tailored to target "enemy states," a designation that in practice applied almost exclusively to North Korea. The new offense carries a minimum prison sentence of three years.

A Gap in National Security

Historically, the narrow focus on North Korea created a legal loophole that complicated the prosecution of industrial espionage conducted by other foreign nations or entities. While South Korea has become a global leader in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, its legal framework remained rooted in a Cold War-era security paradigm. By reclassifying the theft of high-tech assets as a national security crime rather than simple industrial theft, the government aims to create a more formidable deterrent against the recruitment of senior engineers and executives by foreign competitors.

The Scale of Technology Leaks

The urgency of the legislative change is underscored by recent data from the National Office of Investigation. In 2025, the agency detected 179 technology leak cases, with 33 of those involving transfers to overseas entities. China was the primary destination for these leaks, accounting for 18 of the 33 overseas cases, or approximately 54.5%.

The data reveals that South Korea's most strategic industries are the primary targets. Semiconductors were the most frequently targeted technology with five cases, followed by display technology with four cases and secondary battery technology with three cases.

Implications for Global Competition

This legal expansion signals that Seoul now views industrial intellectual property as a core component of national sovereignty. By treating the leak of chip secrets or battery tech as an act of espionage, South Korea is aligning its domestic law with a broader global trend of treating economic security as national security. This approach allows for harsher penalties and more aggressive investigative powers to safeguard the supply chains that underpin the global tech economy.

Future Outlook

As Article 98-2 takes effect, the focus will shift to how the government defines "equivalent organizations" and the threshold for what constitutes a "state secret" in a commercial context. While the minimum sentencing has been established, the legal community will be watching for the first high-profile prosecutions under the new act to determine if it successfully narrows the gap between the theft of sensitive technology and the severity of the punishment.