The lab has a patent though which a lows for disclosure while also profiting from it. Thus I am not totally convinced of your claims.
The last action one of my previous employers took was to send me payments for a patent I'm named on when they filed it in the EU. I had already quit, but it was easier to just send me the check than to cancel it :-)
What is called an international patent is just a standardized application so that only one national patent office has to examine it. If it is accepted, other national offices will grant the patent much more easily since the hard work has already been done.
And here, there is an international application, so what I think is that there is already a patent in Korea, but it is still pending for other countries.