South Korea probes Indonesian engineers over fighter jet data

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – South Korea is investigating Indonesian engineers for alleged theft of details related to the country’s fighter jet program, Yonhap news reported on Friday.

According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the engineers in question were deployed to Korea Aerospace Industries and are under investigation over allegedly stealing technologies related to the KF-21 fighter jet under development. They are under suspicion of storing data on a USB flash drive.

Indonesia, a partner country of the KF-21 fighter jet program that started in 2015, has to pay 20% of the project's 8.8 trillion won ($6.5 billion) cost.​​​​​​​

An official said a joint investigation team including officials of the National Intelligence Service are looking into the circumstances of the technology theft, and whether the stored data contains strategic technologies.

The Indonesians accused are also currently banned from leaving South Korea.

Seoul plans to begin production of the fighter jets later this year, with the aim of deploying them by 2032.