Korea to up crackdown on drug trafficking on record smuggling

SEOUL, December 05 (AJP) - South Korean authorities will up border control and crack down on drug trafficking after seizing a record 3,000 kilograms of illicit substances this year, mostly brought in through smuggling channels.

The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said Friday it confiscated 2,913 kilograms of illegal drugs between January and October, nearly quadruple the volume seized during the same period last year. The surge underscores what officials describe as the sharpest escalation in smuggling attempts in recent years.

Air travelers accounted for the most cases, with 505 detected attempts, while substantial quantities were also intercepted in express cargo shipments and international mail.

Southeast Asia remained the dominant source of inflows, with Cambodia and Laos emerging as fast-growing hubs for trafficking routes targeting Korea.

“Because most illegal drugs distributed domestically originate from overseas smuggling, we will move quickly to strengthen pre-emptive border-control measures,” KCS Commissioner Lee Myeong-ku said.

To bolster enforcement, the KCS will launch joint operations with 10 countries where trafficking activity has been most pronounced. Korea’s existing cooperation with Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United States and the Netherlands will now expand to include Cambodia, Laos, Canada, Germany and France.

Under the plan, participating nations will station customs officers in each other’s airports and border offices to jointly screen high-risk travelers and cargo.

The agency said it has also agreed with Cambodia to conduct coordinated anti-smuggling operations following an emergency meeting between the two sides, amid mounting concerns over organized criminal networks operating across the region.

Korea recently imposed a travel ban and raised advisories for several Cambodian cities after a spike in online scam syndicates and drug-related crimes involving Korean nationals.

*This article, published by Economic Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
Park Kyung-ah 기자 kapark0508@economidaily.com

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