Seoul’s top envoy to Beijing met with a South Korean man who has been behind bars in China for almost a year in connection with an espionage case. 

Amid controversy surrounding the man’s arrest and detention in China, the South Korean Embassy in China announced on Monday that Ambassador Chung Jae-ho had personally visited the man in March to check on his condition.

A high-ranking official at the embassy told South Korean correspondents in Beijing that Chung conducted a consular visit on March 27 to assess the situation.

The official said discussions focused on the man’s health, whether he needed anything, and whether there had been any human rights violations in the course of the investigation.

But the official would not provide specific details about the discussions.

Chinese authorities reportedly suspect the man in his 50s of leaking information about semiconductor technology to South Korea while working for a chipmaker in China.