North Korea has attempted to obtain foreign currency via patent translations into Korean for several years, targeting foreign companies that want to apply for patents in South and North Korea, a US broadcaster, monitored here, reported Tuesday.
"I've received emails from a North Korea translation company starting in 2013 under the title of 'Application for International Patent in South and North Korea,'" the Radio Free Asia (RFA) cited a Korean-American lawyer as saying.
The lawyer said he regularly receives a lot of emails from translation companies as patent applications must be submitted to the (South) Korea Intellectual Property Office in Korean.
"Among them, I found some emails whose addresses were unfamiliar," the lawyer said, adding they were from North Korea.
The broadcaster also said it has confirmed that the emails have been sent from Pyongyang and the Chinese city of Shenyang by a North Korean company named the Science and Technology Collection Center.
The North Korean company promoted in the emails that its translation fee is one-third of that of South Korean translation companies, according to the broadcaster.
"The company also said it can translate patent applications into Chinese and Japanese, as well as into Korean," the broadcaster said. (Yonhap)
