Yoon Tae-sik, Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, is announcing the '2023 Korea Customs Service Work Plan' at the Government Complex Daejeon on the 11th. Photo by Korea Customs Service
[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Customs Service has declared a war on drugs and is set to completely block the domestic import of narcotics.
On the 11th, the Korea Customs Service announced its "2023 Korea Customs Service Work Plan," which includes this initiative. The work plan aims to ensure public safety and support economic vitality recovery by setting and implementing "14 tasks across 6 major areas."
The six major areas are ▲blocking the import of illegal harmful goods such as drugs ▲strengthening crackdowns on illegal foreign exchange and advanced technology leaks ▲enhancing capabilities to respond to economic crises ▲boosting export vitality ▲securing stable tax revenue and strengthening taxpayer protection ▲data openness and future preparedness through new technology utilization.
First, the Korea Customs Service plans to designate this year as the inaugural year of the "War on Drugs" and aims to completely block the import of narcotics into the country.
Domestically, the import of narcotics through mail and special transportation has been sharply increasing. In fact, the amount of narcotics seized over the past five years increased from 50 kg in 2016, 69 kg in 2017, 361 kg in 2018, 412 kg in 2019, 148 kg in 2020, to 1,272 kg in 2021.
Among these, narcotics imported via mail and special transportation fluctuated with 21 kg in 2016, 43 kg in 2017, 111 kg in 2018, 61 kg in 2019, 88 kg in 2020, and 314 kg in 2021.
In response to the continuous increase in cases of narcotics being imported into the country, the Korea Customs Service has set basic directions including ▲strengthening customs inspections and blind spot management by narcotics import routes ▲expanding crackdown infrastructure such as organizations, personnel, and equipment ▲activating cooperation with domestic and international related agencies ▲enhancing narcotics investigation capabilities, and plans to prepare and implement special measures within this month.
Crackdowns to prevent illegal foreign exchange and advanced technology leaks will also be strengthened. To eradicate illegal foreign exchange remittances disguised as trade transactions, a "constant illegal foreign exchange outflow monitoring system" related to pre-remittance will be established within this month, and cooperation in crackdowns will be enhanced by regularizing information sharing on technology leak suspicions with related agencies.
To strengthen capabilities to respond to economic crises, the Korea Customs Service plans to advance its early warning system based on real-time import data by differentiating alarm activation criteria by item, expanding the list of items with disclosed import prices, and increasing the number of items monitored for sudden import price surges.
Yoon Tae-sik, Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, said, "The recent internal and external conditions surrounding customs administration are severe, with an increase in smuggling of harmful goods such as narcotics threatening public safety. The Korea Customs Service will focus its institutional capabilities on preparing and implementing special measures to completely block narcotics smuggling at the border stage and strengthening capabilities to respond to economic crises such as global supply chains and prices."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
