SEOUL — South Korean law enforcement authorities have formally detained a veteran semiconductor expert who previously held executive roles at Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, alongside a former senior researcher from Samsung, over allegations of leaking core national memory chip technology to China.
On September 6, 2024, the Industrial Technology Security Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced that a 66-year-old former semiconductor executive, identified by his surname Choi, and a 60-year-old former senior Samsung researcher, identified as Oh, were arrested on September 5. Both individuals face serious criminal charges under South Korea's Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act.
According to law enforcement officials, Choi and Oh are accused of illicitly transferring highly confidential technical documentation to Chinese entities. The compromised trade secrets specifically involve key operational process parameters—including precise temperature, pressure, and chemical environmental settings—developed independently by Samsung Electronics in 2014 for its 20-nanometer (nm) class Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) production lines.
“The extent of the leaked information indicates that the suspects essentially handed over the core technology in its entirety, enabling the virtual duplication of advanced memory manufacturing lines.” — Seoul Metropolitan Police Officer
A History of Executive Access and Chengdu Joint Ventures
The lead suspect, Choi, holds a prominent profile in South Korea's microelectronics history, having served as a managing director at Samsung Electronics and subsequently as a vice president at SK Hynix. Leveraging his decades of industry leadership and technical knowledge, Choi established a Chinese semiconductor enterprise known as Chengdu Gaozhen High Technology (CHJS) in 2021, funded by capital investments from the municipal government of Chengdu, China.
Choi had previously been arrested in June 2023 under charges of attempting to build a "copycat" semiconductor manufacturing plant in China using illicitly acquired blueprints and factory layout data belonging to Samsung Electronics. After spending five months in detention during that initial investigation, Choi was released on bail. However, police intelligence subsequently uncovered deeper technical leakage involving underlying DRAM fabrication parameters, resulting in his re-arrest alongside Oh, who had served as an executive at Choi's Chengdu-based firm.
Scale of Technical Infringement and Legal Proceedings
A senior police official familiar with the matter noted that the depth and scope of the leaked documents were equivalent to transferring Samsung’s entire 20nm DRAM process architecture wholesale to a foreign entity. The stolen data allowed the Chinese venture to dramatically shorten the research and development lifecycle typically required to master advanced memory chip fabrication.
South Korean investigators confirmed that they will keep both suspects in custody to conduct further interrogations before formally referring the case to prosecutors for trial. This arrest underscores South Korea’s intensifying crackdown on cross-border industrial espionage as global competition over microchip dominance escalates.
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