Prosecution Clears The Born Korea of Charges in 'False Country of Origin Labeling' Case

The prosecution has decided not to indict The Born Korea, which was under suspicion for falsely labeling the origin of ingredients in its products.

Yonhap News

On January 5, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office announced that on December 29 of last year, it had cleared one employee and the corporation itself of charges of violating the Country of Origin Labeling Act.

The Born Korea was suspected of labeling some ingredients of products such as "Baek Jongwon's Baekseok Doenjang" and "Hanshin Pocha Stir-fried Octopus" as domestically sourced, even though they were in fact imported, on its online mall.

The Special Judicial Police of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service referred the case for indictment around June 4 of last year. However, the prosecution ordered a reinvestigation. As a result, on December 24 of last year, the Special Judicial Police concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing and transferred the case back to the prosecution.

The prosecution explained, "It was difficult to recognize intent or responsibility on the part of the employee in charge for the false labeling, so we decided there was no case to answer. Accordingly, the corporation received the same disposition."