Bizarre twist in T-50 Indonesia campaign

South Korean and Indonesian newspapers are abuzz with a bizarre twist in Seoul's quest to find a foreign client for the Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50 Golden Eagle.

Essentially two men and a woman allegedly from South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, recently broke into a Seoul hotel room occupied by a member of a visiting Indonesian trade delegation. Their supposed goal? Details about Indonesia's negotiating position vis-à-vis the T-50.

A member of the Indonesian delegation surprised the three intruders as they peered at a laptop, and the trio departed in haste. Personally, I'd have had two team members on lookout, and one team member peering at the screen, but never mind me - I'm not a professional spook.

Anyway, a Korean paper quoted an anonymous Seoul official as saying this: "The NIS agents, for the national interest, were trying to figure out the Indonesian delegation's negotiating strategies."

In a fine example of understatement, he added that "getting caught was an unintended mistake."

The incident was reported to police, who confiscated the hotel's CCTV footage. Another Korean paper reports that the NIS then confiscated the CCTV footage from the police. So much for seeing any of this on Youtube.

Jakarta and Seoul - eyeing bilateral ties and, dare I say, saving face - seem keen to downplay the incident.

After losing to the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 in both the United Arab Emirates and Singapore trainer competitions, it is understandable that South Korea is keen to see the T-50 win in Indonesia, where it has been short listed with the Yakovlev Yak-130 and Aero Vodochovy L-159.

Whether the intruders had anything to do with the T-50, or were even NIS spies, or learned anything remotely useful, is anybody's guess. Nonetheless, the story provides an amusing diversion from the vast amounts of time and bureaucracy involved in major military aircraft buys.