The Indonesian Embassy in Seoul, South Korea on Tuesday said that the investigation process into the alleged theft of technological information data on the development of the KF-21 Boramae fighter jet, which is accused of two Indonesian engineers, is still being carried out by South Korean authorities.
The statement was made by Ad Interim Chargé d’Affaires of the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul Zelda Wulan Kartika, during a dialogue with a delegation of Indonesian journalists participating in the “Indonesia Next Generation Journalist Network on Korea” program organized by the Korea Foundation in collaboration with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia.
Zelda explained that since the case surfaced in February and the investigation into the two PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) engineers has not yet been completed.
“But the Korean side has communicated directly with the Indonesian Ministry of Defense and PTDI. So PTDI is very aware of what is going on,” Zelda said at the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul,
In responding to this issue, she said, the role of the Indonesian Embassy is to ensure that the investigation process runs according to the rules and that the two engineers are in good condition – even though they are prohibited from leaving the territory of South Korea until the investigation is completed.
Zelda also admitted that the news of this case had shocked the Indonesian public.
However, he emphasized that the two engineers were not detained or imprisoned in South Korea during the investigation.
“Here they can do their daily activities as usual. Only they are asked not to leave Korea, and there is indeed a ban letter on them not leaving Korea,” said Zelda.
The two Indonesians, she said, had even attended the Eid al-Fitr iftar and halal bi halal event held at the Indonesian Embassy in April.
“And we always communicate with them from time to time to monitor their condition,” Zelda said.
The two Indonesian engineers are members of a joint fighter jet development team with South Korea, who work daily with Korea Aerospace Industry (KAI) as PTDI’s partner in the defense industry cooperation.
South Korean authorities said they arrested the two Indonesian engineers in January 2024, after they were caught trying to retrieve project-related files stored on a USB drive.
An official of South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) agency, which is the Indonesian Ministry of Defense’s partner in the KF-21 cooperation, said the investigation focused on identifying the specific documents that the Indonesian experts tried to steal.
According to the unnamed source, the USB contains general documents, not data related to strategic technology that could potentially violate military secrets or defense industry protection laws.
The KF-21 Boramae is a joint Indonesia-South Korea project worth 8 billion US dollars or around Rp121.35 trillion. Through this cooperation, the two countries will produce 120 units of fighter jets for Korea and 48 fighter jets for Indonesia.
Not only that, Indonesia is also promised to get a technology transfer that will encourage the domestic defense industry in the production of KF-21 aircraft for the global market.
According to the initial agreement in 2014, Indonesia was charged 20 percent of the total cost of developing the fighter, which was targeted for completion in 2026.
But in its development, the Indonesian Ministry of Defense recently requested a payment adjustment to the South Korean Government for the cooperation in making the KF-21 Boramae because it considered that Indonesia did not fully obtain technology transfer activities in making the fighter jet.
The Indonesian
