South Korean police are investigating an alleged theft of submarine cable technology involving the country’s two largest cable manufacturers. The situation is expected to escalate, as both companies announced on Monday that they may pursue legal action depending on the outcome of the police investigation.
According to local news outlets, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police searched the headquarters of Taihan Cable & Solution, the country’s second-largest cable company, on July 11. Authorities seized documents and will investigate whether submarine cable technology from LS Cable & System, the nation’s leading cable maker, was illicitly transferred to Taihan.
Last month, South Korean police revealed they are investigating an architectural firm for allegedly violating the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act. The architectural firm worked with LS Cable & System from 2008 to 2023, during which they designed and oversaw the erection of four submarine cable plants.
It is suspected that it was during this period that the firm obtained information related to LS’s submarine cable technology and subsequently transferred it to Taihan. The architectural firm also played a prominent role in the design of Taihan’s submarine cable plant, which completed the first stage of its construction last month.
In an online statement on July 15, LS Cable & System announced that they will consider legal action against Taihan based on the outcome of the police investigation. The global cable maker emphasized the unique challenges of designing submarine cable plants, explaining that, unlike other facility blueprints, these designs require detailed information on manufacturing and shipping submarine cables that range from tens to thousands of kilometers in length. LS claimed that they provided these specialized layouts to the architectural firm.
“The core competitiveness of the submarine industry lies in positioning the equipment and plant correctly,” the company stated. “Our equipment is custom-made. We have invested billions of won in research and development during the construction of four submarine cable plants, establishing our expertise in the field.”
LS was the fourth company globally to develop extra-high-voltage submarine cables in 2007 and the first in the country to establish a submarine cable plant in 2009.
Taihan refuted its competitor’s claims, asserting that the plant layouts cannot be considered core technology. The company argued that since similar information is available on the market from foreign companies, there is no need to resort to surreptitious means to acquire technology. Taihan also announced that it is also considering legal action against its competitor, depending on the outcome of the police investigation.
“We have built the submarine cable plant based on our expertise developed through years of research,” the company stated in an email. “We have never extorted the trade secrets of LS Cable & System nor used them.” The company added that they selected the architectural firm after a thorough evaluation of other similar companies.
When The Readable requested details such as the timeline of the architectural firm’s participation, Taihan declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
The Readable contacted the Industrial Security Investigation Unit at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police for details on the investigation. The South Korean police confirmed they are investigating an individual from the architectural firm for leaking trade secrets but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation.
Editor’s note: Minkyung Shin at The Readable contributed to this reporting by providing her prior research on this issue to the editorial team.
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