530,000 Illegal Imports of School Supplies and Online Class Devices Detected

Collaboration system diagram of the 'Safety Inspection at Import Customs Clearance Stage' by the Korea Customs Service and the National Institute of Technology and Standards. Provided by Korea Customs Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A total of 530,000 illegal and defective items were detected during safety inspections at the import customs clearance stage for school supplies and online class devices.

The Korea Customs Service announced on the 23rd that from the 10th of last month to the 10th of this month, it conducted intensive safety inspections at the customs clearance stage in cooperation with the National Institute of Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, preventing illegal and defective products from entering the country in advance.

The investigation targeted 270 cases (approximately 1.45 million imported items) across nine categories, including pencils, mechanical pencils, erasers, toys, and tablet PCs.

Among these, 77 cases (530,000 items) of illegal or defective products were detected across the nine categories. These products were caught for either lacking safety certification, falsely labeling information, or failing to comply with labeling standards.

By category, the majority were school supplies with 500,000 items, followed by toys with 21,000 items, and tablet PCs with 4,000 items. The Korea Customs Service plans to improve, dispose of, or return the detected products to the exporting countries.

Graph showing the trend of illegal and defective detection rates in safety inspections at the customs clearance stage for imported products over the past 6 years. Provided by Korea Customs Service

Meanwhile, the Korea Customs Service and the National Institute of Technology and Standards have continuously expanded collaborative inspections at the customs clearance stage over the past six years, targeting electrical and household goods as well as children's products. As a result, the detection rate of illegal products at the customs clearance stage decreased by 9.3 percentage points from 31.4% in 2016 to 22.1% last year. As of this month, the detection rate stands at 24.0%.

Officials from the Korea Customs Service and the National Institute of Technology and Standards stated, “The two agencies are making efforts every year through collaboration to block illegal and defective imported products at the customs clearance stage, ensuring that hazardous products do not threaten public safety. This year, we plan to strengthen the expertise of inspection personnel and focus on socially sensitive items to further enhance inspections at the customs clearance stage.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.