South Korea court overturns conviction against contractor on Taiwan submarines

SEOUL — A South Korean appeals court has thrown out the conviction of a local company charged with violating trade laws for its work on Taiwan's new military submarine programme, a ruling reviewed by Reuters showed.

Prosecutors had accused SI Innotec, a marine technology firm, of supplying Taiwan with submarine manufacturing equipment without a government approval.

A lower court in 2022 found SI Innotec guilty and handed a company executive a suspended jail sentence. The firm has denied wrongdoing and appealed, saying that the equipment was not designed solely for military purposes and did not involve sensitive technology.

A three-judge panel at the Changwon District Court on Thursday (Jan 11) found there was not sufficient evidence to consider the equipment as military goods that require export approval from the government, according to the ruling.

"The evidence submitted by the prosecution alone is not sufficient to acknowledge that the equipment in this case is equivalent to production equipment specially designed for submarine production," the panel said in the SI Innotec ruling.

Prosecutors did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. SI Innotec declined to comment.

Reuters reported in October that South Korean authorities cited the risk of Chinese economic retaliation when they charged SI Innotec for its work on Taiwan's submarine project.

Reuters found two other South Korean companies, Keumha Naval Technology (KHNT) and S2&K, were also on trial on charges of breaking trade laws over their work on the Taiwan submarine programme, and one of their executives was accused of industrial espionage. KHNT was not immediately reachable for comment. S2&K declined to comment.

Amid rising military tensions with China, Taiwan unveiled its first home-grown submarine on Sept 28 in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

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