South Korea’s revised espionage law took effect on September 13, extending criminal coverage of spying for an enemy state to certain acts carried out for any foreign country or equivalent organization. Officials have cited the protection of semiconductor and other strategic technologies as one reason for the change, though the new offense applies to national secrets generally, not to every corporate trade secret.
Article 98-2 of the amended Criminal Act covers a person who, for a foreign country or equivalent organization and under its direction, instigation or other contact, discovers, collects, discloses, delivers or brokers national secrets, or assists such conduct. The provision carries a prison term of at least three years. The statute does not identify a particular foreign country.
New offense takes effect after six-month period
The National Assembly passed the amendment on February 26, and it was promulgated on March 12 with a six-month delay before most of its provisions took effect. The existing offense for espionage on behalf of an enemy state remains in Article 98. That provision carries death, life imprisonment or at least seven years in prison; the newly added Article 98-2 has a different sentencing floor.
The law also extends criminal liability for attempts and for certain preparatory acts to the new offense. Its language requires both a national secret and a specified link to a foreign country or equivalent organization. An ordinary transfer of commercial information does not become espionage solely because the recipient is overseas. How prosecutors and courts apply the national-secret requirement to particular technologies will depend on the facts of each case.
The change sits alongside, rather than replaces, South Korea’s existing industrial technology protection law. Article 14 of that law prohibits, among other conduct, obtaining industrial technology by improper means, unauthorized disclosure by people under confidentiality duties, and certain exports of designated national core technologies without the required approval or notification. Those rules do not have the same elements as the new Criminal Act espionage provision.
Chip technology is a focus, but the law is broader
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service welcomed the amendment when it passed, identifying semiconductors, displays, batteries and artificial intelligence among the strategic technologies it seeks to protect, Reuters reported on September 13. Reuters said earlier espionage charges generally applied to acts benefiting North Korea, leading prosecutors in cases involving other foreign actors to use industrial-technology or trade-secret statutes instead.
The semiconductor sector gives the policy immediate economic relevance. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are major memory-chip producers, and South Korea’s chip boom has generated strong export receipts and tax revenue. The government has separately proposed directing part of the tax windfall toward future technology, semiconductor clusters and skills development. The espionage amendment is a criminal-law measure, not a funding program or a change to chip export controls.
Its effectiveness will be tested through investigations and court decisions. The September 13 commencement establishes a new potential charge; it does not establish that any specific corporate leak qualifies as espionage or that the amendment has already reduced technology theft.
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