French Stealing Military Secrets From S. Korea?

(Seoul) Based on best available information, this appears to be a simple case of industrial espionage for money. But there is no assurance that there's not more to it. When individuals spy for money, they will customarily sell information to the highest bidder.

From Chosun.com:

Prosecutors have indicted a former senior official with the Agency for Defense Development on charges of leaking military secrets and taking bribes for helping a French defense contractor win key Korean defense tenders. The ex-official, identified as Park, is charged with leaking military secrets to French defense contractor Thales. Daejeon District Public Prosecutors' Office also arrested the French firm's Korean office chief, a 56-year-old Frenchman identified as P.

The prosecution said Park, who now runs a consultancy firm, in early January acquired classified military information, including the required operational capabilities for the radar of a next-generation convoy vessel, from an ADD researcher identified as Lee, who has also been arrested, and passed the information to the French firm.

Park, who was hired by Thales in 2002, provided military information on the phone or by e-mail some two or three times a week and was paid some W480 million (US$480,000) last year alone, prosecutors said. Park was also deeply involved with a project to develop a Korean surface-to-air missile, the Pegasus K-SAM, and billed Thales an additional W1.4 billion when the firm won the tender in March 2004, they added.

For the French to come up with almost a half million dollars, the information stolen must be quite valuable. Notably, the South Koreans have other espionage investigations underway also.