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Two former POSCO employees were arrested for leaking key steel manufacturing technologies to a Chinese company, the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office said Friday. While technology leaks have occurred in the IT sector, this is the first such incident for Korea's steel industry.
The prosecutors' office said that the two, an executive and a researcher, were involved in research and development at POSCO and stole 1,048 files and documents detailing key steelmaking technologies and operation techniques before leaving the company in August last year. They are suspected of having sold the information to POSCO's Chinese rival for W5 billion (US$1=W918) in May.
Prosecutors said the two received W1.39 billion of the W5 billion from the Chinese company. It took POSCO W45 billion and 150 researchers over 10 years to develop the leaked technologies, which simplify the production of electric steel sheet, reducing costs and increasing profits.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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