[Reporter’s Notebook] The Disappearance of Records Hidden Behind the ‘Typhoon’ by POSCO and Port Authorities

In early autumn of 2008, while covering the deterioration and vessel congestion rate issues at Pohang New Port, I was confronted with some harsh truths on site.

The underlying reason why this national infrastructure port failed to function properly, despite the injection of massive funds, was the intertwined absence of accountability between the private operating company and the government authority responsible for oversight.

At the time, this fact was fully uncovered through a reporter who exclusively obtained the “Port Review Report” submitted by the Pohang Regional Office of Maritime Affairs and Port (now the Pohang Regional Office of Oceans and Fisheries) to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

According to this report, the vessel congestion rate at Pohang New Port reached 19.9%, far exceeding the national average.

Notably, Berth 11 at Pier 1, which was designed to accommodate 150,000-ton class vessels, had been unable to operate normally for over 20 years due to insufficient water depth.

The resulting logistics cost losses translated directly into national losses.

The most painful part was the dredging project.

Instead of implementing fundamental improvements to match the trend of larger vessels, authorities repeatedly carried out “pouring water into a bottomless pit” dredging works under specific berths over and over again.

Outwardly, it appeared that POSCO was covering the construction costs, but in reality, the company was granted future port usage fee reductions through the non-government port construction system.

This ultimately formed a cycle where investments were reimbursed with taxpayers’ money-a definitive indicator of poor port management that resulted in a massive loss of national assets.

Eighteen years later, in 2026, the response submitted by the Pohang Regional Office of Oceans and Fisheries to the National Assembly was even more distressing.

According to recent National Assembly materials reviewed after the 2008 reporting, all major construction implementation plan applications and completion reports submitted by POSCO were found to be “nonexistent.”

The reason given was that the relevant documents had been lost in the aftermath of Typhoon Hinnamnor in 2022.

Even more inexplicable is the attitude of the Pohang Regional Office of Oceans and Fisheries, the supervisory authority.

Even this government body, which is the approving authority for national infrastructure, responded in lockstep with the company, insisting that “no documents exist.”

Not only did the core records of national port management disappear from a corporate warehouse, but the administrative agency that should have strictly preserved these documents is now admitting to a gap in record management and shirking responsibility.

Non-government port construction is a public project-regardless of the private capital invested, it is ultimately linked to the public asset of port usage fees.

The claim that the foundational documents for projects involving hundreds of billions of won were wiped out by a single natural disaster points to a severe flaw in the national record management system.

From the reconstruction of Pier 3 to the dredging of harbor facilities, all key records that could prove the history of Pohang New Port have vanished.

The 22.7 billion won spent on repairs and reinforcement for Piers 1 to 5 in the past, and issues such as the neglect of aging cranes, were all matters that required strict oversight by the authorities.

Even recently, a substantial 11.1 billion won was spent on seismic reinforcement of Pier 1, and 40.6 billion won on reinforcement of Dongbin Pier.

The feeble excuse that core construction documents from the past are “nonexistent” casts doubt on the transparency of current massive expenditures, and now the authorities must rigorously clarify the truth hidden behind these “missing records.”

I still recall the gravity of the internal documents handed to me by an official from the port authority at the time, who struggled to reveal the truth on site.

The voice of that whistleblower, who bravely acted for the public good, may not have been fully heard amid the complex media environment then, but the “value of truth” he sought to uphold remains valid today.

Typhoons may sweep away many things, but they must not erase the record of truth.

The government’s negligent management that allowed national port records to disappear from a company’s warehouse, and the company’s attitude of hiding behind the excuse of “loss” to obscure its past, now warrant a stringent investigation by judicial authorities.

The absence of records means that the past, for which someone must be held accountable, has been erased.