A court of appeals on Friday increased the prison term for an executive of an SK hynix Inc. subcontractor accused of involvement in a technology leak case to 1 1/2 years. The 60-year-old executive was sentenced to a one-year prison term by the Seoul Central District Court about a year ago on charges of leaking the SK company's core semiconductor technology to China and stealing advanced technology from a Samsung Electronics Co. subsidiary. In his appellate trial, the Seoul High Court increased the executive's prison term by six months after finding him additionally guilty of leaking technology jointly developed with SK hynix to a rival semiconductor company in China. The appellate court also increased the prison terms of three other employees of the SK subcontractor to one to 1 1/2 years in the same technology leak case, while the subcontractor itself was ordered to pay a fine of 1 billion won (US$730,000), up from 400 million won ordered by the Seoul Central District Court last year. Source: Yonhap New s Agency