HD Hyundai Heavy Employees Sue Hanwha Ocean for Defamation... "Distortion of Facts"

Employees of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries have filed a defamation lawsuit against their competitor Hanwha Ocean in connection with the leak of the concept design for the Korean next-generation destroyer (KDDX). They claim that Hanwha Ocean intentionally released edited investigation records to the media, distorting the facts and damaging their reputation.

According to industry sources on the 7th, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees submitted a complaint containing these details to the National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters on the 3rd. They are the parties mentioned in the investigation records disclosed at Hanwha Ocean's press briefing in March.

On the 4th, Hanwha Ocean submitted a complaint to the National Police Agency's Cyber Bureau regarding suspicions of an HD Hyundai Heavy Industries executive being involved in the leakage of military secrets related to KDDX. On the 5th, a press briefing was held at the Seoul headquarters building to address this matter. Hanwha Ocean's legal team lawyer Gu Seung-mo is explaining the progress. Photo by Huh Young-han younghan@

Previously, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees were finally convicted last November for illegally obtaining military secrets related to the KDDX and sharing them through the company's internal network, violating the Military Secrets Protection Act. Regarding this, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) stated in February that there was no confirmation of violations of the integrity pledge involving executives or directors, and issued administrative guidance not to restrict HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' eligibility to participate in the KDDX project bidding.

In response, Hanwha Ocean held a press briefing on March 5-6 to refute DAPA's decision, during which they disclosed some investigation records, including suspect interrogation transcripts, as evidence of executive involvement at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. They also requested an investigation by the National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters into executive involvement.

At that time, Hanwha Ocean explained, "Evidence of (organized acts) can be confirmed through related verdicts and criminal case records," adding, "Since server operation requires a budget, it is a circumstance that HD Hyundai Heavy Industries executives could not have been unaware of."

They further stated, "It is unreasonable that only nine employees were punished for company-level criminal acts," and "There must be follow-up measures commensurate with the illegal acts to prevent recurrence, which is why we proceeded with the police complaint."

In their complaint, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees argued that the investigation records disclosed by Hanwha Ocean executives were selectively and intentionally excerpted and edited from suspect interrogation transcripts obtained through the Ministry of National Defense Prosecutor's Office, clearly contradicting the actual statements and intent.

In the investigation records released by Hanwha Ocean, an investigator asks an HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employee, "Did you report to superiors through a business trip report that five employees, including the suspect, viewed military secrets that were illegally photographed, detected, and collected, and that this was approved by the suspect, the department head, and an executive?" The employee answers, "Yes."

However, the actual document contains the investigator asking, "Who were the approvers of the document at that time?" and the employee responding, "The approvers were me, the manager, the department head, and the senior manager as the executive."

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees pointed out that at the time of the incident in 2014, the position of 'Senior Manager' existed as the highest-ranking employee level at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, not as an executive, but Hanwha Ocean misrepresented this position as an executive to mislead the Defense Acquisition Program Administration into treating it as a target for bidding participation restrictions.

Meanwhile, the KDDX project is a program aiming to deploy six 6,000-ton mini Aegis destroyers in active service by 2030 with a budget of 7.8 trillion won. The process proceeds in the order of concept design → basic design → detailed design and initial ship construction → subsequent ship construction. In this project, Hanwha Ocean won the concept design contract, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries secured the basic design contract.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.