Korea, the Intelligence Sieve

I can’t pin point the sources right now, but it’s been known throughout Korea’s history to her allies that Korea is a bit of an intelligence sieve.  During the Imjin War the Chinese would not give the Koreans critical intelligence because the Japanese had the nasty habit of knowing where and when Chinese offenses and troop formations were once the Koreans were put in the loop.

Any ways, today’s main areas of conflict for developed or rapidly developing countries are in the fronts of commerce and trade.  Again, Korea has become a clearinghouse of information, and not for the right reasons.

Per the KT, according to a report submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the authorities detected 160 cases of technology leaks to foreign firms between 2004 and 2008. The estimated damage caused by the illegal acts during the five-year period totaled 253 trillion won ($216 billion). They included technologies developed by state-funded research centers, universities and laboratories affiliated with companies.

The latest example of these costly technology leaks?  Russian car manufacturer TagAZ allegedly got all the design plans (6,000 computer files) for the GM Daewoo Lacetti.  It took $250 millon dollars and years to develop the Lacetti and at the click of a mouse button and milliseconds later, it probably costed TagAZ a pittance.