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

Deok Eok Choi, Head of Daegu-Gyeongbuk Reporting Bureau

In early autumn of 2008, the reporter’s on-site coverage of Pohang New Port’s aging infrastructure and high vessel waiting rates uncovered a heavy truth.

The core reason why this national infrastructure port failed to function properly, despite massive budget injections, was the systemic loss of accountability between the private operator and the government authorities managing it.

This reality was fully exposed when I exclusively obtained and reported on the “Port Review Report” that the Pohang Regional Maritime and Port Administration (now Pohang Regional Office of Oceans and Fisheries) had submitted to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

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

In particular, Berth 11 at Pier 1 was supposed to accommodate 150,000-ton vessels by design, but due to shallow waters, it had not operated properly for over 20 years.

The resulting logistics cost losses became direct national damages.

The most painful aspect was the dredging work.

Instead of fundamentally improving the port to keep pace with the trend of larger vessels, authorities repeatedly dredged under specific berths—a “pouring water into a bottomless jar” approach.

On the surface, it appeared that POSCO was bearing the construction costs, but in reality, the company was receiving future port usage fee reductions through the Non-Governmental Port Construction system.

This created a cycle in which investments were essentially reimbursed with taxpayers’ money, serving as a critical indicator of mismanagement that resulted in vast losses of national assets.

Now, 18 years later in 2026, the response submitted by the Pohang Regional Office of Oceans and Fisheries at the request of the National Assembly is even more dismal.

According to the latest materials submitted at the request of the National Assembly and following the 2008 reports, major construction approval applications and completion reports for projects carried out by POSCO were all processed as “non-existent.”

The stated reason was that the related documents had been lost due to Typhoon Hinnamnor in 2022, making submission impossible.

What is even more difficult to accept is the attitude of the Pohang Regional Office of Oceans and Fisheries, the main supervisory authority.

Even the national authority responsible for approvals is echoing the company’s claim, insisting, “There are no documents.”

Not only did the core records of national port management disappear from a company’s warehouse, but the government agency that should have strictly preserved them is now admitting to gaps in record management and stepping back from responsibility.

Although non-governmental port construction projects involve private funds, they are ultimately public undertakings tied to port usage fees, which are public assets.

The claim that supporting documentation for projects involving hundreds of billions of won could vanish with 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 the major records that should document the history of Pohang New Port have disappeared.

The 22.7 billion won spent on repairs and reinforcements for Piers 1 through 5, and the issue of neglected old cranes, were all matters that required strict government oversight.

Even in recent years, 11.1 billion won was spent on seismic reinforcement of Pier 1, and 40.6 billion won on the reinforcement of Dongbin Pier.

The feeble excuse that key construction documents from the past “do not exist” now casts doubt on the transparency of the massive budgets currently being executed, and it is high time for authorities to provide a thorough explanation for the “absent records” and the truths hidden behind them.

I still remember the weight of internal documents that a port authority official handed over at great personal risk to reveal the truth at the time.

Although the courageous whistleblower’s voice may not have been fully conveyed amid the complex media landscape of the period, the “value of truth” that he sought to protect remains valid.

While typhoons may sweep away many things, the record of truth must never be erased.

The negligence of authorities who allowed the disappearance of national port records from a company’s warehouse, and the company’s attempt to obscure its past actions by hiding behind the excuse of “loss,” now require strict investigation by judicial authorities.

The absence of records means the erasure of a past that should be held accountable.

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