Apparently the 2 main guys, Kim and Lee have been working on this since 1999 and hence the name "LK-99". They worked on other things in industry over the years

Apparently the 2 main guys, Kim and Lee have been working on this since 1999 and hence the name "LK-99". They worked on other things in industry over the years with this on the back burner and a few years ago received some funding to pursue this. Kwon was brought in to babysit essentially. At this point they were able to isolate the material but it took a few years to figure out how to produce it reliable. They bring in HyunTak who has Western ties and has a respectable reputation being a well known physical chemist. They file patents in 2022 and 2023 and some in the group are nervous that because the process is so simple they'll get scooped. Spies, etc. HyunTak wants to do more work before publishing but Kwon just goes ahead and published the paper with him, Lee, and Kim as the authors. HyunTak gets word of this and publishes his paper with him, Lee, and Kim and some others later that day. I think because of this, it is real. Infighting over credits and the fact that HyunTak is extremely respectable.