[2023 National Audit] Bonded Area Smuggling Surge... "Bonded Warehouse Operators Also Involved in Smuggling"

The amount of smuggled goods within bonded areas has increased more than 40 times over the past five years. In particular, there are numerous cases where bonded warehouse agents, experts in bonded cargo, are involved in smuggling. Considering this situation, there are urgent calls for detailed measures to prevent smuggling within bonded areas.

According to the "Customs Law Violations in Bonded Areas over the Past Five Years" submitted by the Korea Customs Service to Jin Sun-mi, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee (Democratic Party of Korea, Gangdong-gu Gap), the amount of smuggled goods in bonded areas rose from 76 million KRW (7 cases) in 2018 to 3.321 billion KRW (5 cases) in 2022, an increase of 43.6 times.

Major detected cases include two ships (115.8 billion KRW) built with goods that were not declared for import at a bonded factory in 2021, which were caught attempting to be smuggled without import declaration, and a 2022 case where a bonded warehouse agent was involved in the unauthorized removal of 37 tons of frozen mackerel pike from Taiwan (worth approximately 230 million KRW).

Especially problematic is the continuous detection of smuggling cases involving bonded warehouse agents, such as in 2022. It was confirmed that 27.8% of smuggling cases detected in 2021 involved bonded warehouse agents or others.

This has led to criticism that the Korea Customs Service’s practice of entrusting self-management to bonded warehouse operators is the reason bonded warehouse agents, who are responsible for managing, handling, and overseeing the import and export of goods within bonded areas, collude with smugglers to commit crimes.

Assemblywoman Jin stated, “The amount of smuggling within the closed bonded areas is increasing sharply. Considering that smuggling crimes involving bonded cargo specialists such as bonded warehouse agents continue unabated, the Korea Customs Service must prepare and implement detailed measures to prevent smuggling within bonded areas.”

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