SEOUL: South Korea has charged a former Samsung executive accused of stealing company secrets worth hundreds of millions of dollars to set up a copycat chip factory in China, prosecutors told AFP on Tuesday.

Semiconductors have become a flashpoint issue between the United States and China, which are locked in a fierce battle over access to chip-making technology and supplies.

South Korean prosecutors said the 65-year-old former Samsung employee allegedly stole the company’s factory blueprints and clean-room designs from 2018 and 2019.

The Suwon district prosecutor’s office said the suspect unsuccessfully tried to set up a copycat production facility in the Chinese city of Xian — where Samsung already has a chip factory.

The man, who has not been identified and is in detention pending trial, stole material that is classified by South Korea as a “national core technology” — a category of tech that could potentially harm national security and the economy if disclosed overseas. Prosecutors said he had been in custody for some time and was formally charged on Monday.

They described him as a “top expert in semiconductor manufacturing”, who had worked in the industry for decades.

South Korean authorities said the information allegedly targeted in the theft would have been worth at least 300 billion won ($236 million) to Samsung.

“It is a serious crime that can have a tremendous negative impact on our economic security by shaking the foundation of the domestic semiconductor industry at a time when competition for chip production is intensifying every day,” prosecutors said in a statement on Monday.