Hanwha Ocean submitted a complaint to the National Police Agency’s National Investigation Division on March 4 to investigate alleged systematic leakage of military secrets related to the Next Generation Korean Destroyer (KDDX) Project by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI).
“It is an objective fact that HD HHI employees illegally stole military secrets including a conceptual KDDX design report, uploaded them to a secret server to share them and used them to prepare a business proposal for participation in a tender,” Hanwha Ocean claimed in its complaint. “It is written in a criminal judgment disclosed in November 2022.”
“Despite HD HHI’s systematic criminal activities which undermine the sound development of the Korean defense industry and the fundamentals of competition order, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) recently exempted HD HHI from being punished on the grounds that none of HD HHI’s CEO and executives were criminally prosecuted,” Hanwha Ocean said. “We are seriously concerned that even grave and obvious criminal acts may be covered up by HD HHI’s attempts to minimize the effects of the military secret theft case.”
“The conceptual KDDX design report illegally obtained by HD HHI was produced by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (currently known as Hanwha Ocean) and delivered to the Korean government, making Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering an actual victim of HD HHI’s illegal activities,” Hanwha Ocean said, adding that in 2018, a Contract Review Committee meeting was held nearly six years after the issue was raised by a security audit, gave HD HHI immunity rather than sanctioning HD HHI for the unconvincing reason that the involvement of executives could not be confirmed by objective facts.
“We call for a strict police investigation of HD HHI’s top management who have committed criminal acts unprecedented in the history of Korea’s defense industry, hoping to restore fair competition within the bounds of the law in the future,” Hanwha Ocean said.
“If the full extent of HD HHI’s systematic theft of military secrets is not identified and HD HHI is not punished and sanctioned accordingly, it will be tantamount to illegal preferential treatment,” Hanwha Ocean said. “Such unfair preferential treatment will eat away at the credibility of the fast-growing Korean defense industry and wreck the basic foundation of Korea’s self-defense.”