Pantech has unveiled a new Android smartphone called Secret UP, which packs a built-in fingerprint scanner for extra security.

Apple was the first company to launch a smartphone with fingerprint scanning technology, releasing its new iPhone 5S flagship with a Touch ID sensor built into the smartphone's home button. HTC later came up with its One Max Android phablet, which sports a fingerprint scanner on the rear of the device, just below the camera.

Samsung is also expected to launch at least one smartphone with a fingerprint scanner in 2014, and other large phone manufacturers are expected to join the party in the future as well.

Pantech has now jumped on the fingerprint scanner bandwagon with its latest smartphone, the newly-announced Secret UP. The fingerprint scanning technology, however, is not the only high-end feature on this smartphone, as the Secret UP has plenty to offer.

The handset features a large 5.6-inch full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and packs the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3 GHz.

Other specifications of the high-end Secret UP include 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 2.1-megapixel front-facing shooter, and Qualcomm Dynamic Range Enhancement (DRE) technology designed to provide high-quality audio.

The smartphone also comes with 16GB of internal storage capacity and support for additional memory of up to a whopping 2TB, according to Pantech's product page for the Secret UP. The handset supports 4G connectivity, features a large 3,150 battery and ships with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box.

The Pantech Vega Secret UP will be available in black and white color options, but it remains unclear at this point just how much the smartphone will cost. The company did not say whether the handset will become available in the U.S. or Europe as well, but we'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more. For now, it seems that the Secret UP will launch only in Korea. If it does make it to the other parts of the world, however, it may give stiff competition to top-end smartphones currently available on the market.