SEOUL, March 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has witnessed an alarming 43-fold increase in the illegal importation of medications containing narcotic substances, including cold medicines, sleeping pills, and diet pills, over the past four years, customs officials reported on March 17. According to the Korea Customs Service (KCS), the volume of illegal pharmaceuticals containing narcotic [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s internet conglomerate Naver Corp.’s big data technology will be employed in the customs clearance process of overseas direct purchases (ODP) as part of an initiative to limit tax evasion. The Korea Customs Service (KCS) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Naver on Tuesday, enabling the KCS [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean police said Monday they have busted the largest-ever operation to smuggle drugs into the country, a scheme they say involves Taiwanese and Japanese organized crime rings and Korean dealers. Six people were arrested in the attempted trafficking of 112 kilograms of methamphetamine, an amount that is enough to be [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Going forward, the transport of goods by a third party on behalf of South Korean conglomerate (chaebol) heads will be banned completely. A new system will enable customs officials to monitor passageways for airport employees which, some say, acted as channels for smuggling. This is according to recommendations by [...]
SEJONG, March 23 (Korea Bizwire) – Exports of semiconductors produced by South Korean firms reached a record high last year on soaring prices and firm demand, customs data showed on Friday. The outbound shipment of chips reached US$99.71 billion last year, sharply up 60.2 percent from the $62.23 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. The 2017 [...]
SEJONG, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean energy companies are resisting a recent government decision to impose a huge tariff on steel giant POSCO for its imports of low-priced liquefied natural gas (LNG), industry sources said Tuesday. The backlash comes after the Korea Customs Service (KCS) informed the country’s leading steelmaker on Nov. 30 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imports of Belgium beer products have increased sharply in 2017 from a year earlier, data showed Sunday, reflecting the rising demand for unique alcoholic beverages here. According to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service, imports of Belgium beer came to US$21.3 million in the January-October [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea has postponed the opening of new duty-free shops by one year amid a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over a missile defense system, industry sources said Friday. In December last year, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) announced six new operators of duty-free shops in Seoul and two provincial cities, giving them 12 months to prepare to open their shops. The KCS [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The government has seized thousands of smuggled hidden recording devices in the past five years amid concerns over illegal image capture by such devices, data showed Wednesday. A total of 2,254 cameras able to take covert pictures were confiscated between 2013 and August of this year, with the value [...]
SEJONG, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans’ direct purchases from foreign countries rose sharply in the first six months of the year on rising demand for cheaper price tags, customs data showed Friday. A total of US$974.1 million worth of foreign goods was directly bought by South Korean shoppers via international shopping malls in [...]