ASIATODAY.ID, SEOUL – South Korean authorities are currently still investigating 2 Indonesian engineers regarding the alleged theft of technological information on the development of the KF-21 Boramae fighter jet.
This was conveyed by the Chargé d’Affaires Ad Interim of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Seoul, Zelda Wulan Kartika, during a dialogue with a delegation of Indonesian journalists participating in the “Indonesia Next Generation Journalist Network on Korea” program organized by the Korea Foundation in collaboration with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia.
Zelda explained that since this case surfaced in February and the investigation into the two PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) engineers had not yet been completed.
“But the Korean side has communicated directly with the Indonesian Ministry of Defense and PTDI. “So PTDI is very aware of what is happening,” said Zelda at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Seoul, on Tuesday, May 14 2024.
It was said that in responding to this issue, the role of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia was to ensure that the investigation process proceeded according to the rules and that the two engineers were in good condition – even though they were prohibited from leaving South Korean territory until the investigation was complete.
Zelda also admitted that the news about this case had shocked the Indonesian public.
However, he emphasized that the two engineers were not detained or imprisoned in South Korea while the investigation was ongoing.
“Here they can carry out their daily activities as usual. “They were only asked not to leave Korea, and indeed there was a letter banning them from leaving Korea,” said Zelda.
He said that the two Indonesian citizens even attended the breaking of the fast together and halal bi halal Eid al-Fitr event which was held at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia last April.
“And we always communicate with them from time to time to monitor their condition,” said Zelda.
The two Indonesian engineers are members of a joint fighter jet development team with South Korea, which works daily with Korea Aerospace Industry (KAI) as PTDI’s partner in defense industry cooperation.
South Korean authorities said they arrested the two Indonesian engineers in January 2024, after they were caught trying to take project-related files stored on a USB drive.
An official from South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), which is a partner of the Indonesian Ministry of Defense in the KF-21 collaboration, said the investigation focused on identifying the specific documents that the experts were trying to steal from Indonesia.
According to the unnamed source, the USB contained general documents, not data related to strategic technology that could potentially violate military secrets laws or defense industry protection.
The KF-21 Boramae is a joint Indonesia-South Korea project worth US$ 8 billion. Through this collaboration, the two countries will produce 120 fighter jets for Korea and 48 fighter jets for Indonesia.
Not only that, Indonesia was also promised a technology transfer that would encourage the domestic defense industry to produce KF-21 aircraft for the global market.
According to the initial agreement in 2014, Indonesia was charged 20 percent of the total cost of developing the fighter aircraft, which was targeted for completion in 2026.
However, in its development, the Indonesian Ministry of Defense recently asked the South Korean government for a payment adjustment for the collaboration in making the KF-21 Boramae because it considered that Indonesia did not fully receive technology transfer activities in making this fighter jet. (Antara)
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