‘Korean firm’ probed for violating US chip controls

A South Korean firm, managed by two Chinese chip engineers, reportedly is being probed by the United States Commerce Department for shipping American parts to sanctioned Chinese firms.

Ronda Korea Co Ltd was accused of having been selling parts developed by California-based Lam Research to Chinese firms under US sanctions, according to a report by The Information, a US news website.

The report said several other South Korean companies are also being probed but it did not name them.

A spokesperson for Lam told The Information that Ronda Korea is not an authorized supplier of its products, and the company is actively engaged with the Commerce Department to ensure it is complying with chip export controls to China. Ronda did not reply to multiple requests from The Information for comments.

Public information shows that Ronda Korea is managed by two Chinese chip engineers, Wen Bingshu and Huang Yuantai, who had worked for Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc China (AMEC) and the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMECAS), respectively.

The investigations came after the US Commerce Department‘s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on March 29 issued a document to clarify and correct its October 2023 export controls on advanced computing, supercomputers and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

The clarification, effective from April 4, was aimed at making it harder for China to obtain US artificial intelligence (AI) chips and chip-making equipment, especially through third countries.

The investigations of Ronda Korea commenced after Chinese Premier Li Qiang, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held their 9th trilateral summit in Seoul on May