Director of the Indonesian Ministry of National Defense’s Technology Bureau “Prepares 100 billion won in contribution, hopes to fulfill obligations”
Regarding the incident in which Indonesian engineers working at Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) were caught trying to leak internal data, including the KF-21, the Indonesian Ministry of National Defense announced its position to continue cooperation with Korea.
According to local daily Compass and CNN Indonesia, Defense Ministry Technical Director Dedi Laxmono emphasized on the 3rd regarding this incident, “We still have the will to continue cooperation with Korea.”
In particular, regarding overdue development contributions, he said that he had prepared 1.25 trillion rupiah (about 106.4 billion won) and hoped to be able to fulfill his contribution obligations.
The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced its position.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told CNN Indonesia on the 2nd that his government was collecting all relevant information.
He explained that the Indonesian Embassy in Korea is in contact with the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and related agencies to investigate the incident. He added that the Indonesian Embassy in Korea is in direct contact with Indonesian engineers.
Spokesperson Iqbal emphasized that the KF-21 is a strategic project between Korea and Indonesia and that “the two countries will manage the various issues arising from this cooperation as best as possible.”
According to the DAPA and the defense industry on the 2nd, an Indonesian employee working at KAI was caught by security guards while trying to take out several portable storage devices (USBs) containing internal data after passing through the company’s security checkpoint on the 17th of last month. .
Intelligence authorities are investigating the leak of confidential information, and the data confirmed so far is known to be at the level of general data. However, since there are several leaked USBs, there is a possibility that additional confidential data will be discovered as intelligence authorities check each one.
Indonesian engineers are reportedly currently banned from leaving the country.
Korea and Indonesia are pursuing the KF-21 project to develop a 4.5-generation fighter by jointly covering a project cost of 8.8 trillion won from 2015 to 2028. Accordingly, it is known that about 30 local engineers are currently working at KAI’s Sacheon factory.
In January 2016, Indonesia invested 1.7 trillion won, or 20% of the total project cost, and decided to locally produce 48 next-generation fighter jets in Indonesia after receiving one prototype and technical data.
However, only 227.2 billion won was paid by January 2019 and the contribution was not paid for nearly 4 years due to economic circumstances, and then only an additional payment of 9.4 billion won was made in November 2022 and about 41.7 billion won in February of last year.
According to the original plan, about 1.2694 trillion won had to be paid so far. However, Indonesia is in arrears of 991.1 billion won, having paid only 278.3 billion won.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.