New Espionage Law

South Korea expands its espionage law to protect critical technology from foreign actors.

South Korea's expanded espionage law, which takes effect after a six-month grace period, broadens espionage offences beyond acts involving North Korea to include all foreign countries. The National Assembly passed the revised Criminal Act on February 26 after years of criticism that existing laws were inadequate for technology and industrial espionage involving non-North Korean actors. The amendment creates a new offence covering espionage for a foreign country or equivalent organisation, with a minimum sentence of three years in prison. Existing provisions for espionage benefiting an "enemy state" remain in place. The change follows high-profile technology leak cases such as the indictment of five former Samsung Electronics employees accused of transferring key DRAM technology to Chinese memory maker CXMT.