Suwon: An appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Chinese former employee of SK hynix Inc. to five years in prison for leaking the company's core semiconductor technology. The Suwon High Court handed down the sentence, along with a 30 million-won (US$21,500) fine, to the 37-year-old defendant for leaking company secrets by printing out some 4,000 pages of material on solutions to semiconductor manufacturing problems, shortly before transferring to Chinese technology firm Huawei in 2022.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the court stated that the material holds high technological and economic value and is considered core state technology, containing business secrets with significant national implications. The court emphasized that such crimes threaten the viability of domestic companies and adversely affect the country's industrial competitiveness.

During the initial trial last year, a district court had sentenced the defendant to 1 1/2 years in prison and a fine of 20 million won.