South Korea’s semiconductor industry made headlines earlier this year when a top Samsung executive was accused of using stolen trade secrets to establish a semiconductor manufacturing plant in China, which mirrored Samsung’s designs.

The story continued to develop last week as South Korean prosecutors added 10 more names to the list of those implicated in the alleged scheme. Among the stolen intel were designs classified as “National Core Technologies,” a term from a set of four that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration uses to identify technologies vital for economic and national security.

Grasping these tech classifications is critical to understanding South