Confirmed in a primary source 13 Sept 2026 Policy

South Korea's spying law now covers every foreign country, not just North Korea, and it took effect this morning.

Since 1953 South Korean prosecutors could only bring an espionage charge when the beneficiary was North Korea or an enemy state, so engineers accused of handing chip technology to Chinese buyers were charged under lighter industrial-secrets laws instead. A new Article 98-2 of the Criminal Act, passed by the National Assembly on February 26 and promulgated on March 12 with a six-month delay written into it, came into force today and makes spying for any foreign country or equivalent organisation a crime carrying at least three years in prison.

The caveat is that a criminal statute reaches conduct after it takes effect, so the cases already in court, including five former Samsung Electronics employees indicted over memory technology said to have reached the Chinese maker CXMT, were charged under the old rules and are not touched by it.

Until now

Selling chip know-how abroad was an industrial-secrets matter in South Korea, prosecuted under lighter statutes unless North Korea was the buyer.

Now

Put more weight on the countries that make advanced chips policing technology transfer as national security in their own criminal courts; put less weight on export controls written in Washington being the main legal instrument in this fight.

The law that took effect this morning is short. It keeps the old offence of spying for an enemy state and adds a new one, Article 98-2, for spying on behalf of any foreign country or an organisation equivalent to one, with a floor of three years in prison. That is a lower penalty than the enemy-state offence and a far higher one than the industrial-secrets statutes prosecutors have been using. The National Assembly passed it on February 26, it was promulgated on March 12, and the six-month delay written into it expired today. It is the first change to the provision since the Criminal Act came into force in 1953.

The reason it exists is a run of cases prosecutors could not charge as what they looked like. Five former Samsung engineers were indicted over memory technology said to have reached CXMT, and because China is not an enemy state the espionage article did not reach them. The National Intelligence Service says the amendment will help prevent leaks of semiconductors, displays, batteries and artificial intelligence technology. Beijing's foreign ministry answered that countries should safeguard normal business activity. The thing being guarded is not small: Korean semiconductor exports ran at 16.5 billion dollars in the first ten days of September alone, about 47 percent of everything the country sold abroad. Put more weight on the countries that make advanced chips policing technology transfer as national security in their own criminal courts, and less on export controls written in Washington being the main legal instrument in this fight.

How it got here

Feb 26
The National Assembly passes the revised Criminal Act, adding Article 98-2 for espionage benefiting a foreign country.
Mar 12
The amendment is promulgated with a six-month delay before it takes effect.
Sep 11
Korea Customs Service reports semiconductor exports of 16.5 billion dollars in the first ten days of September, up 270 percent year on year and about 47 percent of all exports. Recorded in Edition 019.
Sep 13
Article 98-2 takes effect. No charge has been brought under it.
Who has to react
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, whose engineers are now exposed to a charge with a three-year floor if they move to a foreign employer; Chinese memory and foundry firms recruiting in Korea, and the headhunting firms that do it for them; Korean prosecutors and the National Intelligence Service, who now have to pick a first case and make it stand; foreign companies with research staff in Korea, whose ordinary technical exchange sits closer to a criminal line than it did yesterday; Beijing's foreign ministry, which has already objected; and legislators in Japan, Taiwan and the Netherlands, where the same gap between industrial-secrets law and espionage law exists.

The evidence

ObservedThe Korean national law information service records the amendment to the Criminal Act as promulgated on March 12, 2026 and enforced from the day six months after promulgation, which is September 13, 2026. We read the amendment record.

The whole observation, as recorded

The National Assembly passed it on February 26, 2026. The existing Article 98, covering espionage for an enemy state, is kept. A new Article 98-2 covers espionage for a foreign country or an organisation equivalent to one and carries imprisonment of three years or more, a lower floor than the enemy-state offence. This is the first broadening of the espionage provision since the Criminal Act took effect in 1953. The National Intelligence Service said the amendment would strengthen the country's ability to prevent leaks of strategic technologies including semiconductors, displays, batteries and artificial intelligence. China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that all countries should safeguard the normal investment and business activities of enterprises. The case behind the change is the indictment of five former Samsung Electronics employees accused of transferring dynamic random access memory technology to CXMT; neither company commented. The scale of what the law is written to protect: Korea Customs Service figures released on September 11 put semiconductor exports at 16.5 billion dollars in the first ten days of September, up 270 percent on the same period last year and about 47 percent of everything the country sold abroad. Samsung and SK Hynix together hold the majority of the world's memory supply. Reuters, the Financial Times and Bloomberg all carried the law taking effect; we have found no case charged under the new article as of this morning.

Established

A new Article 98-2 of South Korea's Criminal Act, covering espionage for any foreign country, took effect on September 13, 2026, with a minimum sentence of three years.
It was passed on February 26, 2026 and promulgated on March 12, 2026 with a six-month delay written into the amendment.
The existing enemy-state espionage offence in Article 98 is retained alongside it.
The National Intelligence Service states the purpose as preventing leaks of semiconductors, displays, batteries and artificial intelligence technology.

Not established

That anyone will be charged. No prosecution has been brought under the new article.
That it reaches the Samsung and CXMT case. That indictment was brought under the old law and the new one is not retroactive.
That it will survive contact with the courts. The reach of an organisation equivalent to a foreign country is untested.
That other countries will follow. No other chipmaking state has amended its espionage law.

Why it weighs this much

Signal strength

CostMedium

CommitmentHigh

ReversibilityHard

PersistenceStructural

Cost is medium and worth naming honestly: passing a law spends political capital and invites the diplomatic friction Beijing supplied on the day, and it makes hiring and ordinary technical exchange harder for Korean firms abroad, but it costs no money and commits no agency to a budget. Commitment is high because a statute in force is the hardest thing a state produces short of spending: it went through a floor vote, a promulgation and a seven-month wait. Reversibility is hard because undoing it takes another vote. Persistence is structural because criminal statutes outlast the governments that pass them, and because the first prosecution under it will set the reading for years.

What to watch

strengthens A second chipmaking country, such as Japan, Taiwan or the Netherlands, amends its espionage or national-security law to cover technology transfer to a state it does not classify as hostile, by June 30, 2027.
weakens No indictment is brought under Article 98-2 and no other chipmaking country amends its espionage law, by March 31, 2027.

The words

Espionage provision: Article 98 of South Korea's Criminal Act. Until today it only bit when the beneficiary was an enemy state, which in practice meant North Korea.
Promulgation: The formal publication of a law after it passes. Korean statutes often set a delay between promulgation and the day they take effect; here it was six months.
DRAM: The working memory in phones, computers and AI servers. Samsung and SK Hynix supply most of the world's, which is what the new law is written to protect.
CXMT: ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese memory maker. It is the company named in the Samsung case that prosecutors could not charge as espionage under the old law.

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