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The Seoul Central Prosecutor's Office on Sunday arrested three former and one current researcher with POSDATA on charges of attempting to smuggle WiBro technology developed by the company to the United States. Prosecutors plan to summon another three former researchers at POSDATA's lab in the U.S. on suspicion that they tried to set up a company with the same business line there and sell it to a U.S. telecom firm.
The group of researchers in Korea is suspected of taking technological data for WiBro handsets and base stations and the outcome of equipment tests since last October and handing them over to a former researcher at the U.S. lab identified as Kim. Prosecutors said if the technology had been leaked, it could have lost POSDATA some W15 trillion (US$1=W934) in export earnings over the next five years. POSDATA developed the technology by pouring W90 billion into research and development and employing 170 researchers.
WiBro is a super high-speed wireless Internet technology led by Korean companies like Samsung Electronics and KT. According to the prosecutors, Kim, who set up a rival U.S. firm, was planning to use the information he had smuggled out of Korea, develop it and sell his company to a U.S. telecom firm for W180 billion. They are also bringing charges over attempted poaching of about 30 more POSDATA researchers with high salaries.
The Ministry of Information and Communication estimates the value of the domestic WiBro service market at W8.1 trillion between 2006 and 2010. The world market is estimated at W24 trillion. The commercialization of WiBro will cause a production effects worth W24.7 trillion domestically for six years and create jobs for 270,000 people. The National Intelligence Service says the year 2002 saw only five industrial espionage cases, but that increased to 31 in 2006. The prevented damage increased from W200 billion in 2002 to W35.5 trillion in 2005.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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